Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Free N' Forth
by NeonYoshi
Summary: A Pokemon Mystery Dungeon story. On the Stone Continent east of the other continents, a young minccino named Tamin runs away from her abusive family into the wilderness. She soon meets with a shinx named Locke and they join an exploration guild together. But it doesn't take long for both to learn that evil can be found not just in criminals, but within the guild itself.
1. A Fateful Meeting

"To run away doesn't always mean to run. Sometimes it's a steady walk, sometimes filled with moments to stop and refocus, sometimes it means to hide away somewhere for a long time. I really care not what it is, it's freedom all the same," Tamin thought as she slowly stepped through an uncanny forest she had found herself in. She didn't speak it out loud as she had grown accustomed to knowing that thoughts were safe while speech can invariably carry consequence with it- so she had been adapted to be quiet when possible.

The words she recited in her mind helped her justify her pace in the current location. She was just a lone minccino, lost in an eerie forest as she slowly paced through it while looking left and right. Only a limited amount of sunlight pierced through the canopy above her, and the forest seemed to be cut in strange ways that resulted in clearings that seemed like hallways and rooms. Tamin didn't know what forest she was lost in, she didn't know which way was north, and she didn't know how deep into it she was. But there was one thing she was certain about regarding where she was: she knew she wasn't anywhere safe.

She continued through the clearing and the rough. She was hearing the sounds of other pokemon in the area as her eyes continued to dart around and her tail was bent; it wanting to hang between her legs.

In the thick woods, Tamin saw a patch of overgrowth. She immediately went over to it and climbed up it, calling upon the talents of the minccino species to scale up. She hoped that from it she could find a way to climb up the trees that made up the uncanny forests' walls, which would allow her to get above the canopy and see where to go from there. But as the minccino climbed over the rough overgrowth, she began to feel and hear something else moving around inside of it.

"Oh no," Tamin thought as she was in the overgrowth.

She felt a sudden movement from inside of it, confirming another pokemon was inside. With fight or flight instincts kicking in, Tamin jumped out of the overgrowth as fast as she could. She managed to get out, but she did it with so much haste that multiple prickles from the plants stabbed into her fur.

"Ah-" the minccino muttered in pain as she reached the forest ground again.

Tamin sprinted away as fast as she could, trying to put distance between herself and whatever was in the overgrowth, at the cost of pushing the thistles deeper inside of her. She went down a thin pathway in the woods on all fours to get away. She approached another clearing on the other side. But before she could get to the otherside, she saw a scyther emerge from around the corner. The wild pokemon's eyes met with Tamin, and focused into a hateful gaze.

Tamin attempted to slow herself down, but she was going so fast that she couldn't come to a complete stop before getting within reach of the scyther. She looked up to see the scyther raising its bladed arm up and behind him; a sight that made Tamin's heart skip a beat.

Though before the scyther swung its arm towards the minccino, a thunderbolt suddenly came from the clearing and struck the scyther. Tamin let out a yelp in surprise and jumped backwards out of reflex while the electricity crackled through the scyther for a moment; leading to the pokemon collapsing down to the ground.

The entire scene vexed Tamin on what just transpired. She took a second to rebuild her composure and get back on her feet before considering what to do next. Tamin remembered that some pokemon still existed back in the overgrowth behind her, so turning back didn't seem like a terribly wise idea. At the same time, she did know that whatever the source of the thunderbolt was did actually save her from the scyther. Knowing those things, Tamin knew the best option was to carry on and press forth.

She stepped towards the scyther and looked around the corner. There she saw a shinx in the clearing. But this shinx was unlike the other pokemon in the dungeon, they had a sort of backpack that had several bags and pouches at their side, many of which were full with miscellaneous things. The shinx saw her back with curiosity; it had heard her. It took a look back at her and began walking towards her.

"Wait-wait-wait, don't attack me!" Tamin said while putting her paws in front of her.

The shinx stopped in his pace to look at her.

"You're not from around here, I take it?" he asked.

"No, and you're not like the other pokemon here, I see," Tamin responded.

"Nah, I'm just a rogue explorer. I came here to gather some food and treasure," the shinx explained.

"And where is 'here' exactly?" Tamin inquired.

"It's a forest mystery dungeon. I don't really know the exact names people have given all of them, but this isn't my first time I've been here."

"What's a mystery dungeon?"

"Wow, you really don't know much," he said with a slightly mocking smile, "They're these places with maze-like environments, treasure, and wild pokemon. All over the world to be honest.

As for the pokemon inside of here, some say it's some sort of 'dungeon sickness' that makes them all crazy and wild, but all you really need to know is that they're territorial beyond belief."

"Oh, okay…" Tamin said, trying to get a grasp on the situation.

The minccino looked downwards, seeing her own body again. She saw the small thistles that were still stabbed into her fur again; there were three of them and all were on the left side of her body. She pulled one out, feeling the pain become enhanced upon its removal, and took a moment to inspect it. It felt humiliating to be hurt by such a small thing, as well as scary to be hurt without a way to heal herself. Making it worse was how they were only on the left side of her body which created an asymmetrical feeling that Tamin found particularly annoying.

"You're a bit hurt I can see," he said.

"Yeah," Tamin replied.

"Here, I have something for you," the shinx said as he sat down and began interacting with his pouches and pockets, from them he withdrew a blue slice of sorts, "Remove the thistles from your body, it will heal it. Just this small amount should be enough, I don't want to give you a full oran berry since I don't have a lot of food on me. Also, try to eat it with your side teeth instead of your front teeth. They're quite hard. "

Tamin took the slice of the berry from him. Following his commands, she got the thistles removed and ate the berry. After swallowing, she could feel her skin being mended and the pain subsiding.

"Thanks for that," Tamin said.

"No problem," the shinx said as he began to turn around.

"Wait!" the minccino called out.

"Keep your voice down, and what is it?"

"I'm totally lost right now, and I don't know how to fight. So could you do me a favor and guide me out of here? I could really use some assistance," Tamin begged.

The shinx pondered for a second while looking at the minccino. This was far outside what he would normally do and he understood this would be burdensome to him, but as he looked at her closer, he felt he knew what was best.

"Sure. I was actually planning on heading deeper in to look for food, but it's fine. Follow me," the shinx said as he turned himself to point his body to a different pathway out of the clearing.

"Thank you," Tamin replied as she began to follow the shinx, "Say, you never told me what your name was."

"I'm Locke," the shinx said, "Do you have a name?"

"My name is Tamin."

"Ah, gotcha," Locke said as they went down another thin pathway in the woods with Tamin being shortly behind him.

"Are you sure you know the way out?" Tamin inquired as she held her paws together and looked around carefully.

"Oh yeah, I've got a good mental map and refined pathfinding instincts," he assured, "We won't be long until were in normal land again."

"That's a relief to hear," Tamin said, relaxing her muscles a bit.

"Yeah. Normally it would like four days to get out, but with my talent I can probably knock that down to three or three-and-a-half days. Pretty good."

"Wait, what?!"

The shinx laughed to himself for a second before he responded.

"Nah, I'm just joking. Doubt it will be more than an hour," Locke clarified, still smiling. "And if my pathfinding senses somehow don't work, then I have a compass on me we could use."

"Why in the world would you make jokes like that?" Tamin said in a concerned and slightly angry tone, "I'm actually scared where I am right now, and you're not making it any better."

"Gallows humor- my friend. Takes the stress away from bad situations, but doesn't make you less keen about the problems. So those problems won't end up creeping up on you."

"But this situation isn't even that bad, is it?" the minccino asked, "You defeated that scyther in one hit, so isn't this under your control? Wouldn't 'gallows humor' be unnecessary?"

"Well you see, comedy is a lot like coffee. It's purest form is pure black," Locke said as he returned his focus to go onward.

Tamin would have rolled her eyes at such a comment if she wasn't so nervous about the entire scene already.

They continued through the forest dungeon after that, going through multiple and varied areas to get across it. Neither of them talked very much past that point, going through the area in silence, claiming recluse in their minds as they thought their own (drastically different) thoughts. Locke's fur always seemed to light up a bit in the moment before a fight began, which was matched with him extending the claws out of his paws. Tamin did her best to hide away and avoid battles while Locke was easily able to get up close and handle them. Even against multiple enemies in a room, the shinx was able to arc his electricity between multiple targets to shock all of them. In close combat he was exceptional as well, getting his claws deep into the forest pokemon that attacked them and fluently evading the attacks that came towards them. In these many fights, Tamin could notice Locke acted a little off. He found raw, primal strength within himself that he resorted to, delivering exertions that seemed painful to simply perform. He wouldn't speak in fights beyond grunts and roars of a fighter, and even in the times where an attack did connect with him he would hardly react to it despite a mark being left on his body. Most concerning of all were the moments where Tamin caught sight of Locke's eyes in the chaos, which seemed to shift to a certain shade of red akin to the color his claws would get as they gathered blood. The minccino could imagine Locke collapsing in exhaustion after some of the more intense battles, but such a thing simply did not happen. He'd take some time to cool off from the intensity of battles, but otherwise he'd seem fine afterwards and the strange color in his eyes would reside along with the danger. Such sights made Tamin feel less safe and further dissuaded her from communication as they went through the mystery dungeon. Yet after each of the fights it wouldn't take too long for the shinx to snap back to normal.

They traveled for twenty-two minutes, until Locke made an abrupt stop as he looked around, causing Tamin to stop as well. In front of them was an area with a particularly high amount of leaves on the ground.

"Be careful here, I don't think we're alone here," the shinx quietly said to her.

"What do you mean?" Tamin asked.

"I don't think me and you are the only pokemon in here that aren't some wild dungeon pokemon. There have been a few things that I've noticed regarding that. Moreover, this room ahead seems like the typical room that an ambush gets set up in."

"Okay then. What should we do?" Tamin inquired, ignoring the shinx's grammatical mistakes. She also kept her voice down like he was doing.

"Just keep following me, but watch your step. It's not long until we're out of here anyways," Locke commanded.

He began walking forward with his eyes pointed towards the ground, his body was bent upwards and every step he made was slow and precise to maintain an optimal level of stealth. Reck was put into every movement, but he didn't drop his awareness of the surrounding areas either. His body glowed the brightest that Tamin had seen thus far from him.

The minccino did her best to follow in Locke's step, but she did not possess the same skills that the shinx held. The crunch of leaves underfoot seemed much louder than it had previously as they put much more focus on it.

As they continued forth through the area, Tamin's head turned upwards, which caused her attention to be trapped on other things. Small details, whether that would be missing bark on a tree or plants which still held onto most of their leaves and seemed out of place because of that- they were things Tamin noticed, and things that annoyed her. Part of her wanted to be able to clean out every leaf in the area, but that part could be suppressed by her survival instinct and rationality. But what could not be so easily suppressed was her sight going around her. So many details from the surrounding environment trapped her eye, like how the trees seemed to not fit with the autumn season, the small chips that were inflicted by pokemon, and other things. The walls of the mystery dungeon were just off from what was natural and normal for real forests, like this was some simulacra of an actual forest that was only about ninety percent correct but had leftover errors from that which made it an uncanny reality. Tamin felt compelled to attempt to fix it even though she lacked any method to do so. Frustration grew and the minccino's eyes did not return to the ground.

As the two continued walking forward, Locke continued to make precise steps while Tamin continued to be distracted. Suddenly, Tamin put her foot down on a patch of leaves that did not have solid ground below it like the rest of the area had. As she put her weight down on this step from expecting it to be solid, her leg fell down the empty area and her entire body tripped down. On the way down, she could feel her foot made contact with some sort of thin string and snap it. As the minccino fully fell down, a clicking sound was heard.

"What did I tell you about being careful?" Locke said as his head snapped back to look at Tamin.

"My leg is stuck! Can you help me?!" she responded.

Before anything more could be done, growling and other distinct sounds from pokemon could be heard emanating from around them. Suddenly there were several wild forest pokemon that were emerging from the trees and pathways like wolves scouring in for a feast. Their gaze locked onto the minccino and shinx, their eyes so full of pure primal instinct they were tinted red.

Tamin looked around at the immediate threat with a face of fear, pausing for a moment and then switching to desperately trying to pull her leg out from the trap. Locke turned his head around quickly to take a headcount of the enemies in the room and add them to his spacial awareness while he charged up with electricity.

The ambushing pokemon began to charge forward. Seeing it as time to act, Locke fired off a thunderbolt at a breloom to deliver a devastating shock. After it had made contact, Locke managed to arc the electricity to turn the current towards a dodrio near them, causing it to be shocked as well. The breloom fell down while the dodrio still had some fight left in it after the shock. Despite the opening attack, other ambushing pokemon continued to close in. The shinx turned his head again and let out an audible growl. He seemed to ignore the fact that he was outnumbered and instead leapt towards another enemy, both of his paws had his claws fully extended and in a position to strike. The wild pokemon he was headed towards attempted to get into a defensive position, but before they could do that Locke landed on them and quickly tore at their neck using his claws. After wounds were opened and blood was drawn, Locke pressed his lower legs against it and pushed hard to swiftly jump off. Locke met with the ground before the wild pokemon whose neck was torn up collapsed, and he continued the momentum to immediately begin attacking other wild pokemon (hardly even blinking between the moment).

Tamin continued to struggle to free her leg, pulling at it and shifting her angle. Eventually she found a position where it was able to slide free, and she pulled so hard that she clumsily fell onto her back after getting freed. Once on her back, she looked upwards to see a wild nuzleaf above her that was preparing an attack. Tamin looked away and put her paws in front of her head to attempt to mitigate the blow, but was met with surging pain in her paws shortly after.

Meanwhile, Locke continued to struggle against the group of pokemon. He was closely surrounded by three pokemon, but fought with true ferocity. He ignored both his own wounds and the fact that he was outnumbered to fight like a cornered beast- shocking and scratching at the different wild pokemon in a flurry of chaos. Every second was filled with several actions with hits, evasions and glancing blows alike.

But in the constant chaos, one thing pierced through the struggle and reached Tamin's ears while she was close to panicking.

"Over there!" a masculine voice commanded from the clearing's edge.

Tamin managed to find a moment in the veil to open her eyes and look to where the voice came from. In doing so, she saw that it was a lucario with a black baseball cap that had said it. He was turned sideways and was pointing towards her. Beside the lucario was an arcanine and a predominantly blue meowstic. All three of them had differently colored bandanas around their necks.

After speaking, the lucario ran into the room towards Locke and those surrounding him while the arcanine went over Tamin. The meowstic paused for a moment to prevent the pokemon larger than him from stepping on him, and after the way was cleared he ran in the direction the lucario and went in.

When the lucario with the baseball cap drew close, he threw a haymaker punch at one of the wild pokemon. It made contact with their chest and knocked them out of the fight instantly as Locke dodged out of the way. Before the wild dungeon pokemon could properly adapt to what was happening, the lucario grabbed another one and used his other arm to deliver an aura blast point-blank into their waist, disposing of them instantly as well. At the same time, the arcanine released a blast of fire breath from his mouth at the nuzleaf near Tamin. The minccino ducked down to get as flat against the ground as she could get so that the flames would go above her, but she still felt heat intense enough that it made her want to scream in pain. The meowstic also unleashed a psychic attack at the third pokemon near Locke by raising his ears a bit to release the energy.

Locke maintained with the rhythm in the fight through all of this, dodging the new combatants regardless of what side they were on and continued searching for opportunities in the veil. At that point in the fight, he was operating purely on instincts. His eyes met with the arcanine and dilated in focus. He charged up with electricity once more and discharged a thunderbolt at it.

"What the heck?" the arcanine said as he saw a thunderbolt coming from the pokemon he thought he was helping. He attempted to dodge out of the way, but his massive body prevented that from being effective. It made contact with his body, but didn't do a terribly much damage.

After seeing the attack, the meowstic turned his head to Locke and opened his ears up again. He attempted to use telekinesis on the shinx to hold it down.

"Calm down you little s-" the meowstic said before he got interrupted.

"Everyone stop!" Tamin commanded as she got up with her paws raised up, "Locke stop!"

Everyone turned their gaze to Tamin after this, surrounded by the defeated wild pokemon. Locke took the longest to calm down and focus on Tamin, but seeing the others suddenly stop like they no longer wanted to fight also caused him to calm down.

"What is going on? Who are you?" Tamin asked.

"We're pokemon from the region's exploration guild," the lucario began to explain as he entered a more relaxed position, "We were returning from the dungeon after retrieving an item, and I felt that you two were here with aura sense."

"Oh… Thank you so much," Tamin said, finally calming down again, "I got lost in this place, and this shinx helped me get this far."

"I see," the meowstic said to Tamin, though his gaze was focused on Locke.

"We were on our way out, so you can come along with us," the Arcanine said.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. The way out isn't too far away anyways,"

"Thank you oh so much," Tamin said, now devoid of stress, "Come on Locke. Let's get out of this madhouse,"

"Sure," Locke said, acting as if nothing was wrong and in his normal state again with normal eye color.

The meowstic rolled his eyes, and then said, "This way," while he pointed to a clearing out.

They all got together to form a group of five and traveled as one. Tamin and others tried to ignore what had happened with Locke firing off a thunderbolt at the arcanine, but the meowstic's eyes were fixated on Locke with a not-so-positive expression. Now away from danger for the moment, they were able to talk once more.

"So you said you're a part of a guild for doing this kind of stuff?" Locke asked them.

"Yes," the meowistic responded.

"Do you just do rescue missions or mystery dungeon stuff in general?"

"We do a lot of different things, mostly requests. Taking care of pokemon with bounties, finding lost items, collecting things, finding secret areas. Quite a bit," the lucario with the black baseball cap clarified.

"Hmm. Alright." Locke said, spending a moment to think about what he just said. "Then I request to join this guild," Locke stated.

All the pokemon there, including Tamin, immediately shifted their gaze to Locke after hearing this request. So he continued to explain himself.

"I have been going into these mystery dungeons for a while now. It's how I get food and money. I've learned to handle myself in these and more than know how to fight and navigate these places.

I already have all the right skills to do this. I'm perfect for a guild like this. All I need is for you to give me a roof to live under and I can help you guys out."

"...You know you haven't really made a great first impression to us, right?" the meowstic replied.

"The minccino was the one that triggered the trap for the ambush, it was just an accident on her part," Locke stated.

"Well we can't really confirm any of what you just said is true-" the arcanine said before he was interrupted.

"Then bring me to the guild so I can prove myself," Locke said.

"Alright I guess we could do that."

"I want to join too!" Tamin stated, interrupting the conversation, "If you're going to give him a chance to join the guild, I request a chance as well."

The team of pokemon from the guild looked at each other as the whole group continued to walk through the dungeon.

"Our guild is getting kinda full as is. Should we use the little room we have left on them?" The arcanine asked.

"It is ultimately not our say in whether or not they get in. But, I do believe it is our duty to bring them to the guild if they truly want to try and join it."

Locke smiled in satisfaction as he was absolutely confident he would get in. Similarly, a wave of relief went upon Tamin as she knew this was a perfect opportunity and plan.

"What are your names by the way?" Locke asked them.

"I'm Rustin, this is Armin and this is Max. We often go on missions together, but the guild doesn't use concrete teams so we often go on missions with other members as well." The meowstic of the group said, pointing to the lucario first and the arcanine second.

"Sounds great!" Tamin and Locke said together near-synchronized.

Just as they said that, the group stepped out of the mystery dungeon onto a hilltop on a normal forest. Unlike the dungeon behind them, the leaves were almost entirely fallen onto the ground leaving a ground containing a variety of autumn colors mixed together to create a simplistic beauty. Between the branches one could see through the trees to admire far more of the landscape. The true forest didn't go past the horizon, as the careful eye could spot the forest's end as it yielded to an ancient prairie of unknown expanse and seemingly limitless boundaries. The sun's golden rays beamed down straight onto the two aspiring guild members. They all looked forward, their minds imagining what could be ahead in their futures and what might await them with this major decision.

**End of chapter 1**


	2. Testing Day

Tamin the minccino, Locke the shinx, Armin the lucario, Max the arcanine and Rustin the meowstic walked through cleared roads. These roads left the forest and continued through the plains, and was situated in the normal and logical world which proved starkly different then the vexing mystery dungeons they were in prior. The floor of fallen leaves and whispers of wind through wood had gone away as they left the forest, but without the trees to block the way, the frigid wind beared down on them harder.

"How long until we get to the guild?" Tamin asked as she had her paws around her, tail slightly wrapped around her body and shivered a small amount, "It's cold out here."

"Should be about a quarter-hour away at this point," Armin answered.

"Aww, can't be another full hour? At this rate we'll still just get to normal skin-deep chilled. If we stay out here for longer we can have the chill get deeper and enjoy the song of our bones singing," Locke replied.

"What the heck," Tamin replied, once more appalled by Locke's humor, "Although, I suppose it isn't horribly cold."

"Yeah. Believe me, you haven't seen the worst of it yet. Just wait until winter hits. Or you fight an ice type pokemon. Or a combination of the two!" Locke said, "Although in all seriousness, you'll get used to it like I have."

"Don't push it, I don't want to think about the temperature anymore," she complained.

"Honestly, I'm not sure your best fit for this guild if simple cold is too much for you," Armin the lucario said, "We could just escort you back home,"

"I'll be fine, I know this is what's right for me," Tamin argued back, "I am set."

"Alright then. Now I don't know much about you, but I hope you don't expect any special treatment. You will be in danger like the rest of us," Armin continued.

"That's not me at all," Tamin said, "I'll be fine. I know how to adapt."

"Well you apparently didn't know what a mystery dungeon was before today and did fall into a trap, so I don't think you're off to a great start," Locke said, speaking in a tone more earnest than accusatory.

"Stop talking! That's not it-"

"I'm going to cut you off right now, I don't want a stupid childish argument to break out." Armin interupted, "This isn't the time or place to act like toddlers. How old are you two, even?"

"Four," Locke responded.

"Five since last week," Tamin followed up. She chose her words not out of honesty, but because she knew specificity begets believability.

"That's… obscenely young," the lucario responded, being confused by what they said.

"Woah woah, that's not young at all. It's over quarter-aged for a minccino's lifespan," Tamin argued back with a bit of passion.

"I'm really not that young for my species either," Locke said, a bit confused himself.

"Oh...right...yeah," Armin said, his confusing sounding like it was being resolved and he turned his head back forwards.

"Do you not know how ageing works-" Tamin began questioning before being interrupted.

"Hey, since you two are cold, you could be hugging me a bit. I'm a fire type, so my fur is pretty warm." Max stated, interrupting.

"Eh, I think I'm good." Locke responded, actually putting another step of distance between himself and the arcanine.

"I'll be fine; probably should be getting used to these temperatures anyways." Tamin said, getting quieter as she spoke the second part of the sentence.

"Okay then. Suit yourself," Max said.

"It's just a little over ten minutes. Let's not get into any fights in that time," Rustin the meowstic commented.

They continued walking in mostly silence for a bit longer. As they drew closer to their destination, they saw buildings and were able to get a closer look at the details and shape of them when they got there. There was a town with quite a few buildings set up in it, clearly having been established for years. But sticking out the most from the town was a large building beside a large treehouse just to the north of the town.

"We're here," Rustin said.

The guild had two main buildings. First was a large rectangular and wooden building that had two big floors, with the second floor having some porches on the north and south sides. It possessed some wood patterns and decor on the sides. It also had a greenhouse set up on the south side with a small glass hallway leading to it from the inside. The second building was a large treehouse to the east of the main building that exceeded the height of the main building as well as most of the buildings in the town. To the west of the main building was a pool that had a cover tarped over it.

There were a number of pathways around and coming out of the location, leading to many wayward directions. Additionally, there were a few scarfed pokemon already outside that had their looks turned to Locke and Tamin as the group walked up to the building. They looked at the shinx and minccino with interest, wondering what they were doing beside the explorers.

Tamin looked back at these other pokemon with a shy look, but Locke just ignored them and continued to move forward.

They entered the main building guildhall, which only led to more pokemon inside noticing Tamin and Locke and looking at them. There must have been at least a dozen pokemon in the main building at that time alone. Tamin awkwardly smiled and waved at them while Locke looked around with intrigue.

"Follow us," Rustin said as they entered the building true through the front doors. He placed his paw on the shinx to ensure he would stay with them and not get lost in the rather large building.

The inside made the place look even bigger. The hallways rooms were large enough to let the arcanine among them exist there comfortably, which by proxy had the effect of making Locke and Tamin feel small in the architecture around them.

The group navigated the building for a small time before reaching one door close to the center of the first floor.

"We're back, and we have something to show you," Armin said as he knocked on the door.

"Alright, come on in," a male voice from inside of the room said.

The lucario opened the door, and everyone except Max entered the room (as Max was too large to enter without causing the room to be overcrowded). The room was an office with many shelves, books, papers and other materials around. On the other side of the room across from the group was a desk, sitting behind it was an espeon with a chatot beside him.

"Ah, You finished your rescue mission?" The espeon said, "How did it go?"

"We got the item and completed the mission, but there is a more important matter we must discuss," Rustin said.

"Oh, what would that be?" the espeon said as he began to notice the minccino and shinx in the room with them.

"On the way back we found this minccino and this shinx. Both of which told us they wanted to join the guild, so we escorted them back to here,"

The espeon and the chatot were both taken aback by hearing this, but it was the chatot that spoke first.

"Ahh, so we have some aspirants I see. You know there are a lot of pokemon who want to join guild like this, but many fail at passing even the preliminaries-"

"Not really. We actually get a good amount of requests every year that get-" the espeon interrupted, but was interrupted himself.

"And not many of those requests go through even past then," the chatot continued ignoring what the espeon said, "Only the cream of the crop get to join-"

"Again, not really. We do more accepting than not when it comes to the pokemon who come requesting to join-"

"So please tell us, what makes YOU in particular worthy of this difficult job?" the chatot finished. He stopped looking at Locke and Tamin and started digging through a drawer for some papers.

"I am Locke. And as I have explained to these other pokemon, I have been delving into mystery dungeons by myself for a while now. I have all the skills for the kind of missions you do," Locke said.

"I know how to follow orders and get jobs done well enough." Tamin stated, not feeling confident in her words but not letting that show in her tone or body language, " And while I admit I might lack some skills that are favored for these kinds of things, I know how to avoid being a burden on your business."

"Good to know," the espeon said with a smile, "This is my assistant Niot. My real name is Herald, but you can just call me 'Espeon'. I am the main guildmaster and operate the guild at daytime hours. My sister Eryth handles the guild at night, but she isn't awake right now."

Tamin and Locke nodded to affirm.

"Regardless, if you truly do want to join this guild, then let us begin the registration," Niot said as he opened a drawer to pull out two papers.

The two papers were identical to one another. He placed them on the other side of the desk, closer to where Locke and Tamin were.

"These are the registration forms. Please take a seat and fill them out," Niot said to them.

"Seems like everything is handled from here, I'll head out now," Armin the lucario said as he turned around to face the office door out again.

"Same," the meowstic said, "Say, do you think they'll actually join the guild?"

"I don't really care…" Armin replied as he opened the door to exit.

"Alright. I haven't exactly formed an opinion of them either, but I think they could be useful," Rustin said as they left.

Espeon used psychic to move two chairs in front of the desk. Locke and Tamin both came up to the chairs and jumped up onto them. Just as he got on, Locke began reaching into the pouches he had on his side.

"Wait a second, I can show you that I'm skilled," Locke said as he pulled a compass from his bag.

"Uh, okay?" Espeon said.

Locke set the compass flat down on the desk, with everyone shifting their gaze towards it. The needle pointed to north and straight towards Espeon in the process. The shinx then put one of his claws on the edge of the object, and after a second, the needle shifted positions to point towards where his claw was instead.

"I'm precise enough with my electricity that I can create a magnetic charge using it," Locke said as he moved his claw along the edge of the compass, showing that the needle was following it.

"...At the top of your head do you know how difficult that is for an electric type to do?" Niot asked as both him and Espeon closely observed what Locke was doing.

"I've seen Olivia do that before as a sort of party trick, but I'm not sure how long it took for her to be able to do that," Espeon replied.

Locke took his claw off of the compass, causing it to reset back to pointing north. He then retrieved the compass and put it back into his pouches.

"Well I do appreciate that you can show off your prowess and your eagerness to do so, but we really do need you to write your information down," Espeon said, trying to maintain a smile.

"Alright then. I suppose we need to do some paperwork because our lives might just be a little too exciting without it. Where would the world be if we didn't know the feeling of wrist pain?" Locke said jokingly.

Tamin took a pen that was on the desk that she managed to hold in one paw while Locke grabbed an ink vial which he dipped a claw into so he could write with it.

"Just a formality, we'll need to know some things about if you become a part of the guild," Espeon reassured while both him and Niot looked down at them with the papers.

Each paper contained information to fill in. It started out simple with places to put in names, gender, species and age. It contained both a first and last name section at the top, but after the shinx was done writing down his first name, he paused in unsureness with the last name. Since ink was dripping from his claw and he didn't want to leave it there for a long time, he just moved onto the other sections. Tamin had a similar pause when she reached that particular section, wondering if it would be better for her to write it down or leave it blank. But she took a glance at what Locke was writing to see he had left it blank, and that gave her the confirmation so think it was okay to leave it blank herself. The last thing on the top was a checkbox to indicate if they would prefer being referred to by their species names instead of actual names, which neither of them checked off.

Beyond the simple identity information, the rest of the paper contained places to put down skills, strengths, and weaknesses. Locke had a breeze putting down information, checking off highly on the skills put down and expressing how good he was at exploration, fighting in mystery dungeons, pathfinding, effective item usage, gathering resources and endurance. For writing down personal strengths, he wrote "independant, strong, tough, resolved" in substandard penmanship. He had some trouble thinking of what to put down for the weaknesses section and wondered if it would be best for him to leave it blank. But after some thought, he wrote down "low experience at working with teams." Tamin had a tougher time, being unsure on what to put for much of it. Right off she knew that it would be beneficial for her to exaggerate how good she thought her own skills were to appear better, but she knew she couldn't overdo it. She put most skills down as slightly better than what she thought it was, doing so with little remorse. When it came down to strengths, she wrote down "clever, resourceful, cleanly", as she felt her real strengths would be things that it wouldn't be a good idea to share. Then at weaknesses, she figured the rest of her paper would be more believable if she was more honest in this section. She wrote "minimal combat and mystery dungeon experience", but before she fully raised up her pen, she had the idea to follow it up with "bad at filling out papers," so she wrote that as well.

The final section was on the bottom of the paper just asked "why do you want to join the guild?" Locke was able to write down "to have a place to stay and a reliable source of food," down on his section. Tamin initially planned to write "protection", but she realized that sounded extremely suspicious. So the minccino instead thought of what the most generic and acceptable thing would be, and wrote "to explore the world."

As they each filled out their papers, they occasionally glanced over on what the other had. Locke was surprised by how well Tamin was writing when she only gripped the pen with a single paw. She seemed to have a level of precise dexterity with her paws that he had neither seen before now thought was possible.

"Are you two done?" Espeon asked.

"Yeah," the two affirmed as they pushed the papers forward.

"Great!" he said as he took ahold of them, "Niot, put these two through the yard tests while I look over these papers."

"Understood, but are you sure you don't want to do the tests yourself? I think I would be a better fit for looking through papers," the chatot responded.

"It wouldn't be fully safe for me, you know that," Espeon said, "I can do fine looking through these."

"Alright."

Niot got up and flew across the room to grab a specific bag. Afterwards he flew over Locke and Tamin to get to the office's door.

"Come with me, you two," he ordered.

"Okay," Locke said while Tamin stayed silent.

Niot opened the door out and they traveled through the guildhouse again, following the chatot. They went back outside to a specific straight path that had posts set up at it. Once they got there they stopped and Niot pulled a stopwatch out of the bag he brought with him.

"From here to the signpost over there is exactly fifteen meters. At my signal, you are to sprint there and back on my command. Any questions?" Niot said to them with the stopwatch in his talons. He has one of his wings pointed out straight to show where the starting point precisely was.

"I don't think so," Locke said as he got right behind the invisible line Niot was pointing out and into a position ready to sprint.

"I don't have any either," Tamin said as she got down on all fours right beside the shinx.

The chatot spent a moment looking at his watch as he slowly raised his wing up. Locke and Tamin further tensed up in those few seconds of suspense.

"Go!" Niot shouted as he quickly lowered his wing and started the timer.

Locke had superior reflexes and reacted a split second faster, claiming an early lead and quickly building up momentum in a proper running position. Right at the start he had an advantage that in a close race could determine the victor. Tamin tried her best as well, having motivation and a degree of skill to put into her step as well. Two seconds into the race, the minccino started passing ahead of the shinx on the road. Locke got a look of frustration and Tamin got a look of surprise when this happened, but neither made the mistake of turning their heads in the race. Tamin got to the pole first and slammed her legs into the ground to break up her momentum so she could turn around and run the other direction. But when Locke reached the pole, he had a different plan in mind. Locke extended his claws and grabbed onto the pole, then swung his body around in an arc by holding onto the pole. Once he had swung around a hundred and eighty degrees, he let go to throw himself back towards Niot while retaining most of his momentum. This trick caused Locke to get ahead in the race again and caused Niot to consider if such a technique was within the rules, but decided to allow it as it looked impressive and he would like to have pokemon able to perform those sorts of things in the guild. With the race over half over, Locke put extra effort into his sprinting to try to keep his lead. Tamin slowly regained her advantage and came up close. In the final moments of the race as they closed in on the starting line, the minccino came ahead and crossed half a second before the shinx did.

"Good job," Niot said as he clicked the stopwatch the exact moment Tamin passed by him, then clicked it again when Locke passed, "Interesting results, I'd say. Locke, your speed is about average for a first stage evolution- perhaps a bit better. Moreover, you have also proven yourself to have some skills with dexterity and acrobatics in this test, which I shall ensure the guildmaster is aware of. As for you, Tamin, your speed is an exception.

Also, this goes without saying but this is a test and not a competition. You're racing against the clock and not each other, with it being entirely possible that both of you succeed or both fail. Although if viewing this as a competition helps motivate you to do better then by all means continue."

Niot pulled out a pad and pen from the bag and wrote down the test results on it.

"That concludes the speed test. Now onto the physical attack test," the chatot said as he finished writing.

He put the pad and pen back into the bag and retrieved a colored sash from the bag and put it around his neck.

"Hit me with your strongest physical attack you have, and I will do my best to fairly judge its strength."

"Aren't you worried about getting hurt?" Tamin asked cautiously.

"I have more toughness than you'd think," Niot responded, "That is also what the focus sash is for. It will ensure the attack cannot be lethal."

"I'll go first!" Locke said excitedly while pushing Tamin out of the way.

Niot put his wings up to brace for the attack while Locke ran up, extended his claws and leapt into the air. He then dove down and cut with both of the claws onto Niot's wings.

"Ah… Impressive attack," Niot grunted in response.

After delivering the strike, Locke jumped backwards to gain some distance again. While he began bleeding, Niot looked into the bag to pull out a sitrus berry, which he quickly ate. The berry causes his wounds to be healed, with him being returned to the state he was in before Locke attacked him. He wrote down on his notepad some more and then turned to Tamin.

"Alright, it would be your turn now."

She nodded, although unconfident in her head, she made sure to not let that show in her face. She walked up the tha chatot, put her paws together, raised them far into the air and slammed them down as Niot braced again. As the attack connected, Tamin felt pain surge between the parts of her paw. While not enough to cause any bone damage, it did result in her grimacing from it.

"Okay," Niot said as the attack ended, "Not exactly impressive, but I suppose you are new."

Tamin backed away as Niot took some more notes on their performance.

"Next up is the special attack test, not much different from the previous test. Come on now."

"Umm, I don't think I have anything for that," Tamin said.

"You don't have any special moves?" Niot inquired.

"No…"

"Good to know," Niot said as he wrote on the pad once more, "Effectively zero for special attack then. Locke, how about you-"

As the chatot raised his head up from the pad, he already saw the shinx fully charged up with electricity and in the process of getting ready to discharge it. Reacting quickly, he dropped the pad to prevent it from getting damaged, but before he could bring his wings up to brace the attack again, the thunderbolt was fired straight forward and connected square at his chest.

"Ah!" Niot shouted in pain as the electricity crackled through him. He staggered backwards and his limbs were twitched or paralyzed.

"Did I do good?" Locke asked.

"Why the hell didn't you wait for my signal before you attacked!" Niot scolded.

"I didn't think I had to. I went first for the previous test, so I went first for this test as well," Locke argued.

"You should not have done that without warning!" he shouted again.

Locke rolled his eyes and then spoke again.

"But was my attack good?"

"Yes, it was powerful, but the guildmaster will know about this!"

"Okay," the shinx said flatly.

"Anyways, the guildmaster has ordered a stop to defense and health tests, so that will conclude the tests for today. Let us head back inside."

The two nodded and followed the chatot once again. They navigated back to the office they were before and met with Espeon once again.

"Ah, you're back. How did the yard tests go?" Espeon asked as he saw them come in.

Chatot flew over to get onto the desk and retrieved the notepad he had been writing on, which he set down.

"I wrote down my full notes in there. I'd call the shinx above average, but appears notably unruly. There's not much special about the minccino I have seen, aside from her being quite swift," Niot explained.

"Good to know, thanks for that," Espeon responded, "While you were gone, I checked the rooms states for the guildhouse, and I found we had two rooms left. Both are on the first floor and cleaned out, so they can stay in those rooms for the night."

"You know you seem to be thinking they are guaranteed they will get in despite the fact that we haven't really tested them too much," Niot pointed out.

"They need a place to stay tonight. I'm giving that to them. There's nothing wrong with that," Espeon explained himself.

Niot sighed before he spoke, "Alright. Let's show them their rooms then."

Locke and Tamin were brought across the halls of the guildhouse to two rooms that were side-by-side with one another. Each of the rooms were rectangular, with about three meters from the door to the wall on the other side while the room was four meters from across the two side walls. They were carpeted and had straw beds, but empty on the inside besides that. They had windows with thick curtains, but they had no function to be able to be opened up.

"We have some unused furniture for you to rummage through in the basement. We'll do a proper test mission tomorrow, but for today, use what you can find down there and rest for the night. You deserve it," Espeon told Locke and Tamin.

"Thank you very much for this," Tamin said while giving Espeon a slight bow.

"You are welcome," Espeon replied.

Locke didn't say anything before he wandered into his room, locked the door behind him and collapsed on the bed. Tamin did the same just not as suddenly.

It was not long before they were both sleeping. Dreaming about how tomorrow would go as they slept.

**End of chapter 2.**


	3. In the Field

The night had passed peacefully, with Locke sleeping soundly in the unused guildhouse room at the time. He was curled up and snored ever so quietly as he wandered the landscapes in his dreams.

His calm slumber got interrupted by the sound of knocking on the chamber door. The sound caused the shinx to spring up quickly and made his fur faintly glow as he got fully awake in a moment.

"Locke, wake up! It's breakfast time and you are heading off to your test mission in a few hours," Niot spoke as he continued to knock on the chamber door.

"I'm coming!" Locke responded as he dashed to the door and undid the sliding pin lock on it.

He stepped out of the room to see the chatot standing just outside in the hallway with a notebook and a pen. Just a moment after Locke came out, the door beside him opened up and out stepped Tamin. The minccino's movements were slightly staggered and off with her eyes not fully open as she came out. Her attentiveness was not fully there.

"We are currently hosting breakfast in the dining room at the center of the guildhouse's main floor," Niot explained. "I do suggest you come along as you will be embarking on your test mission soon enough."

"That's good. My belly hasn't been topped off for a few days now," Locke replied.

"Wh-why so early?" Tamin asked, her eyes not widening.

"So we can get the mission done before lunch happens. We're not going to have you hanging around the guild, having two meals, just to then find out that you didn't make the cut."

"Okay then…" Tamin said.

Niot pointed in a direction, which made Locke and Tamin travel in that direction. Niot went to continue knocking on doors while the two headed off. They made it to the dining room to see two large rectangular tables with piles of food on it and various pokemon sitting around it to eat. Not seeing much etiquette being hosted in the scene, they simply took a seat and began eating. The food there wasn't cooked much and was mostly just raw produce like apples or carrots. Tamin took some glazed bread that was available on the table and slowly chewed them down as she still tried to fully wake up while Locke took just about everything he could reach and feasted down on it, eating with his mouth open. For drinks, Tamin just had a glass of pure water while Locke worked with a coffee machine that was set up to make a cup of pure black coffee. While they ate, the eyes of the other pokemon did focus on Locke and Tamin more than anyone else, but they didn't spend the entire meal staring to avoid being rude. Once she had woken up, Tamin took a moment to look back at the room. For the most part, she just saw pokemon with scarves doing the exact same thing; grabbing whatever food seemed best and focusing on it to fill themselves up,aside from one mienshao who was eating from a take out box hat clearly did not come from the guild.

Espeon came to the dinning room after a minute and took a seat beside Locke and Tamin, then began eating himself.

"So, you're the aspiring members?" A mawile said to them while leaning over to be closer to them.

"Yeah…" Tamin as she looked around the room to once again check who all had their eyes on them. "Espeon, did you tell everyone we were joining?" Tamin inquired as she turned to him.

"Yesh." Espeon spoke with his voice distorted by having food in his mouth, he spent a moment to swallow before he continued, "Today's a momentous day. Of course I'm going to tell the guild."

They continued to eat for a few minutes. Locke tried to be social and talked to the other pokemon there while Tamin just kept eating as a way to avoid having to talk to others.

After that, they were called into espeon's office along with Niot and a froslass from the guild. Once they were all gathered, Espeon got back to behind his desk and spoke.

"Before you can join the guild, we will be setting up a mock mission to test your abilities. Here's what you will be doing;

There is a mystery dungeon not far from the guild that doesn't have too strong of pokemon inside. Froslass will go in and hide in there, acting as a mock lost pokemon whom you are to rescue.

After she is in position, you two will head in to find her with Niot following you to note your performance. After you're done you will head back out and I will look over the notes that Niot took along the way to decide whether or not you will be officially recruited.

Any questions?"

"Yes. How do we know froslass will be safe when she heads down?" Tamin asked.

"Don't worry. I know how to get this done," Froslass responded.

"How far deep will we have to go?" Locke asked.

"I will set the difficulty to what I think is fair," Froslass once again responded.

"Will we have to be partners for our entire time here (assuming we both pass)?" Tamin inquired.

"Teams aren't really something we do," Espeon clarified, "When someone picks up a mission they ask around the guild for who wants to go with them. Find whoever best works for where you are heading. Most pokemon here find their favorite members to work with, but do change up who you're bringing in to match with the dungeon's challenges, and you will never be forced to head into a dungeon where you are at a disadvantage."

"Alright, I think we are ready," Locke stated.

"Good," Espeon said, "Niot, please give them their supplies and lead them to the dungeon."

"Of course," Niot said as he got two backpacks that were both filled. They were both small with one being shaped like a traditional backpack while the other was worn like a saddle with a bag on each side. Locke removed the bags he previously had to put on the second backpack while Tamin donned the first. The minccino could immediately feel the added weight on her while Locke actually lost some grams from the swap.

Afterwards, Locke, Tamin, Froslass and Niot all left the office while Espeon gave them a small wave as a sign of goodbye from behind his desk. Locke told them that his previous bags had better be left in the same condition before they left.

Going from the guildhouse to the outside, they made an hour long trek across the lands to the test dungeon. They went down the same path Locke and Tamin raced on, except they went significantly farther. Going into a forest that got progressively thicker the further they went through.

"Alright. We're here," Niot finally spoke as they came up to a passageway made of bent trees, "Froslass, we will give you forty-five minutes to get into the dungeon before I bring our aspirent in to find you. We will wait outside until she's ready."

Froslass nodded before she quietly floated into the opening.

"Thank goodness. My legs are killing me," Tamin stated as she sat down, having been tired from the hour long walk with the backpack.

"I'll keep watch until then!" Locke stated as he got down and started checking around them.

"Most likely unnecessary, but vigilance is a virtue," Niot complimented Locke as he began writing notes on them, "While we wait, I might as well go into greater detail on the equipment you will be using."

From his own bag, Niot withdrew a rod that had its lower two-thirds white while the upper third was colored tan and had a strip that could be torn off that separated the upper segment.

"This is a flare. It is the most important part of your kit and you will always be provided at least one of them on every mission.

They have multiple properties to them that will make them useful. To use one, point it in a direction and tear off the seam with your paws or teeth. The upper part of it will then be launched off and produce a contrail of luminous, colored smoke. After a few seconds (or until it hits against a solid object) the projectile will loudly explode into a burst of smoke and produce much light. Lastly, after it is used the remaining residue on the held part of the flare will continue to glow for an hour, serving as a portable light source that won't be extinguished if submerged in water."

Locke and Tamin both looked at their backpacks again. Tamin had a flare that looked identical to Niot's that was held by rings at the bottom of her bag while Locke's flare had the upper part colored a bright yellow and was located near his left shoulder. Tamin grabbed her flare and quickly pulled it out to inspect it, but carefully avoided the stripe that could be torn off as she handled it.

"So is this what we're supposed to use to call for help?" Tamin asked as she studied it.

"The use of one should always be seen as a call to regroup that will reach farther than your lungs can, and will also be a valuable light source," the chatot answered, "I should mention that your flare has been modded to produce less sound than the typical flare does as your species has more sensitive hearing."

"Umm, alright then," Tamin said, unsure if she should feel offended that something needed to be modified to cater to her superficially or be flattered that he just said how her hearing is better than average.

"I see. Well, I can get down with these (even though I doubt I'll be needing them)," Locke said while looking at his own flare, "Although I must ask: how many flares does it take to illuminate away our problems? Is it easier than waving our enemies to death? Oh, or will a little noise be enough to cause ravenous pokemon to run with their tails between their legs?"

"There are a number of situations where flares will be useful, and I have heard of members finding creative applications for them. Other guilds have badges that allow for teleportation or other tools, but these flares are unique to this guild. Use them wisely.

Anyways, your other exhibition supplies consists of food, berries, drinks and light bandages that shouldn't require further explanation, so that should conclude the equipment explanation."

Niot pulled out a watch to check the time as he turned away from the other two. As he did so, Tamin put her flare back to where it was and walked over to Locke. Seeing this as a moment where the chatot was distracted, she talked to him.

"You said you've been going into mystery dungeons for a while now, correct?" Tamin asked Locke.

"Yeah. As far back as I can remember, I have been sustaining myself off of them," the shinx replied.

"You don't remember anything else?"

"Not really, no. I haven't even a clue on who my parents were, I just assumed they abandoned me."

"So have you just been traveling around without a home or a family your whole life?" Tamin asked in a mixture of confusion and concern, "Just endless mystery dungeons, alone until now?"

"I have had some personal hideouts and companions, but nothing permanent. Not sure if this guild will be permanent either, but if I can live on it then I can handle a lot of punishment."

"Sorry to hear that." Tamin said as she started to worry about hurting Locke's feelings, "Do you have any friends you still know?"

"There are some other rogue explorers like me that I have talked to and teamed up with. We kind of have our own community, but not really."

"Got it. I really hope things get better for you then."

"Yeah." Locke said, "Hey, I told you about my past (or at least what I know about it) so can I ask about yours?"

Tamin looked back to check Niot. She saw that he was looking away from them at his watch and was not listening in at all to what they were talking about.

"I think I can trust you enough, but can you promise you don't go around telling anyone else about this?" Tamin said in a quieter voice to make doubly sure Niot didn't listen in on her.

"Oh, you can trust me. I can keep it to myself." Locke said in a reassuring manor, giving a paw gesture to reinforce the reassurance.

"I… would rather not talk about that," Tamin said, looking down. "Don't take that personally, though."

"Uh, okay then," Locke said, confused by her sentiment.

Tamin looked downwards to the ground as a flood of memory came back to her, little of it positive. She remembered what her childhood was to her, what it felt like to spend days trapped in the walls of her home and being locked up in her room for hours on end with every infinitesimal reason her parents found to ground her. Her childhood was wasted by being dressed up and having to pretend to be happy all so her parents could retain the facade of a perfect family to the outside world so the endless abuse could be kept up inside of the walls; the worst of abuse always being reserved for when she did anything that might damage that facade.

Tamin tried her best to avoid thinking about her past, to avoid the memories of getting cut and beaten by the ones she was always told should protect her. But with nothing to do except wait at that time, she couldn't stop the floodgates of recollection coming to her mind once more. Recollection of a childhood lost to pain, deceit, and broken trust. On more than one occasion her parents said she was sick even when she wasn't just so they could avoid bringing her out into the world where her recent bruises and marks could have been seen. The only happy memory she had refurface at that moment was from just a week prior, the memory of her escaping from the house through a window at night and running away with what little she could carry, all while not looking back."

Locke did speak to her again, which caused Tamin to snap back to reality. They continued to make small talk with each other for a little longer until Niot interrupted them.

"Alright. It's been twenty minutes. Time to begin," Niot said while he reset his watch, "Head into the dungeon and search for Froslass. I will follow and take notes on your performance."

"Got it," Locke and Tamin said as they got up.

Locke was the one to get to the entrance first with Tamin getting close behind him and Niot close behind her. They went deeper in with the environment returning to the uncanny simulacra of a forest with maze-like environments. The small details that annoyed Tamin returned, but Locke and Niot were able to ignore it. The chatot got his writing board out again along with a pen.

They began to navigate through the rooms of the mystery dungeon, through the clearing, thin paths, and overgrowth. They encountered a wild scyther not too far into the dungeon, which Locke quickly dealt with using a thunderbolt. More battles came after that as they navigated deeper into the dungeon, with Locke handling them while Tamin stayed back behind him. Niot noticed the pattern of Tamin avoiding combat quickly, so he wasted no time to write that down as a note.

"So will we have to be fighting together from start to end of this dungeon essentially?" Tamin asked.

"I'd assume so. Low density dungeons do exist but this doesn't appear to be one of them," Locke replied, "I'm also trying to see what I can pick up in this dungeon. These bags still have some room for loot in them, and we'd be foolish to not capitalize on that."

"So… I guess you could say that we're locked in combat then," Tamin said while making finger guns with her paws, which got unconfident and started to turn to the side, "Ehhhhhhh?"

Both Locke and Niot stopped in place to look at Tamin.

"Is that all you have in the joke department?" Locke asked, "Just a half-baked pun?"

"Well...Yeah," Tamin admitted, "I'm not really well versed in the world of humor."

"Though it is not treated as seriously as traditional combat or exploration skills, being able to cheer up moods and remove stress on the team is a valuable skill to possess. However, like all skills, it does require training and refinement over time to get anything worthwhile out of it," Niot told Tamin.

"Eh, I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually. It will just cost you a few broken bones before you can get there," Locke reassured, "And don't worry, that's not an expensive currency to pay with. I'm sure you'll get dozens of broken bones overtime."

Tamin chose to give no response to that last comment Locke made. The three all continued to move forward through the dungeon, passing after they passed that awkward situation.

The shinx's entire focus was shifted to the dungeon, and he stopped communicating with the other two near him. Whenever a threat would appear he would be able to deal with it quickly and with little energy. Battles would occasionally get involved enough to where Tamin would have to evade attacks, but she didn't throw any attacks herself. Eventually they reached an open area that had some healthy flowers on the ground which contrasted against the rest of the deadwood dungeon. When they reached the place, Locke scouted around again and saw a pathway which led to some coins on the ground in another more open area. His sight shifted to the coins while Tamin looked at the flowers. She felt it was more peaceful then the other environments and had a desire to rest there.

"You said Froslass spent twenty minutes getting into a hiding spot, correct?" Tamin asked Niot, turning around to face him directly.

"That is right," he said. While he spoke, he focused on Tamin's face and not on what was behind her.

"So if we take the most efficient route through this dungeon, then it will take twenty minutes to get to her? But because we don't know which pathway she took, it will take a lot longer to locate her?" Tamin asked.

"Not necessarily. From our past recruitment tests I believe she only needs about ten minutes. I just gave her extra time to make absolutely sure she got into a ready position," he explained.

"Ah, that's good," Tamin said, "So giving a rough estimate, how long do you think this will take at the pace we are going?"

"I would guess a half hour. But you should steel yourself for missions that can last for hours at a time," Niot reassured as he turned back to taking notes.

"Understood. I was considering taking a minute in this room to rest, but if that's short then we might as well keep pushing on. Let's go-... Wait, where's Locke?"

Tamin looked away from the chatot to around the room again, and didn't see the shinx anywhere in it. Niot also lowered what he was holding to check around the room.

"He wandered off somewhere?" she asked.

"Appears so," Niot said nonchalantly, "I will make sure that Espeon hears of this. Lack of communication to the team is a critical flaw."

"What should I do?" Tamin asked, starting to get concerned.

"This test is supposed to see how you will deal with a standard mission scenario. For that reason, I cannot provide you with any advice as I will obviously not be accompanying you on every mission in the field.

However, seeing how you react to a situation like this will provide with a very good image of yourself to the guildmasters."

"Alright. Hmm…" Tamin said as she thought to herself about a way out. Suddenly, she had a flash of insight and reached under her backpack, "Well this is obvious. You said flares should be used to signal a regroup, so I'll just activate my flare to get Locke back over here."

She pulled her flare out once again and pointed it upwards. She used her other paw to grab onto the strap. But before she tore it off, she hesitated.

"Then again, this is the only flare I have. If I use it now and we get seperated later, then I'll be left without a way out," Tamin said to herself, "Thinking about it, I'll wait on that. We'll try to find him manually for a minute."

The minccino put the flare back to where it was again. She then turned to a random path out of the room.

"Follow me, we'll search for Locke first and then Froslass."

"You really don't need to be giving commands, I will keep up."

Elsewhere in the dungeon, Locke had finished picking up the coins he saw on the ground when more dungeon pokemon attacked him. He didn't have a hard time discharging electricity at them and finishing off what remained with his claws and teeth. Once the fight was over, he looked around to realize that neither Tamin nor Niot was with him. However, he was in his standard dungeon exploration mindset and used to being alone. So he didn't pay too much focus on how they were not with him. Locke scanned around again for any other items he could pick up in his sight and continued going into new areas in the dungeon. There were many things that his subconscious could pick up on that he normally couldn't, like snow-like twinkles, the air being ever so colder, slight smells and the typical positions of dungeon pokemon being offset. For that reason, Locke trusted his instincts with what path he should have followed throughout the dungeon. Although looting the dungeon remained as a secondary goal, as he still put some time to track down Froslass.

Several more dungeon pokemon tried to attack Locke, but they were about his same size and he easily defeated them with his claws and electricity, hardly with taking any damage himself. However, he knew that the dungeon still held the potential for much larger pokemon for him to fight.

While Locke did that, Tamin and Niot continued through the dungeon themselves in a roughly parallel way to where the shinx was. She did her best to ignore the items strewn about the dungeon and try to sneak around. She made sure her steps were light and produced minimal sound, as well as quickly checking behind corners before crossing them. Niot still followed close behind and managed to keep his noise down as well as to not ruin Tamin's work. The chatot also made sure to take note of what Tamin was doing. He was impressed by her caution and footwork, being able to identify that it was more than just the nature of her species, there was actually a degree of skill behind her movements and evasive maneuvers. But at the same time, he did know the guild needed pokemon who could fight and he simply didn't see that in the minccino.

Eventually, Tamin found a thin part of the dungeon that contained a pansage in it. Dead wood packed both sides of the pathway making it too thin for her to get around the pokemon and she knew that backtracking would likely lead to her encountering fights in worse scenarios, so she figured that combat was her only option at that time.

Tamin chose to be on two legs for the battle so that her head wasn't the closest thing to the pokemon and her upper paws were available to fight using. She ran towards the pokemon with her fists clenched, while Niot stood back to watch the confrontation. Her original intent was to use the force of running to help her attack strength, but before she could get up to it the pansage fired off a sharp leaf towards her. Tamin evaded it with the limited space she had, but being forced to reposition herself while running at full speed and having the weight of the backpack throw off her center of gravity caused her to begin tripping up. She did succeed at making it to the pansage, but instead of the full-force strike like she intended it became her clumsily falling down while also swinging her fists down. They connected, but in addition to the pansage getting hurt Tamin also felt a surge of main in her own paws. In the moment when Tamin was recovering, the pansage counterattacked and hit her square in the chest, causing her to recoil backwards and yelp from the pain. The pansage tried to follow up with a second attack, but she back stepped out of the way just in time. Not knowing of many other ways to inflict harm in the given situation, Tamin put both of her upper paws together and pulled them in the air with the intent to pound down. But in doing so she exposed her chest for attacks. The pansage quickly hit Tamin with a downward swing at her torso, which threw her off of her game and made her pound weaker.

Adapting quickly, Tamin changed up her plans. She turned to the side and rammed her body, shoulder-first, into the dungeon pokemon. The attack connected and was her most successful one yet, dealing decent damage and pushing the pansage back. Afterwards, in the moment it was stuttered, she grabbed onto its fur with her paws and slammed it against the dead wood walls, using both her arm strength and pressing down on the ground with her legs to make it more powerful. The force was mighty and made it so her paws were not hurt like they were from her previous attacks. Carrying the momentum, she kept her grip and slammed the pokemon onto the dungeon floor. With that attack, it was finally defeated.

Tamin took a step back and made sure it wasn't moving anymore while she caught her breath.

Without further comment, she took her backpack off and dug through it to retrieve an oran berry. She quickly ate it to both celebrate the victory and heal the damage she had just received. Afterwards she put her backpack back on and walked over the pansage while Niot was quickly writing notes down.

The next area they entered was circular roughly four meters in diameter. It contained no pokemon, only a red lockbox and other pathways out. Tamin checked to see if there was any potential trap. After she saw no such thing, she walked towards the lockbox and got down to inspect it further.

"Ah yes, some mystery dungeons contain chests like these ones. The typical protocol would be to have a stronger explorer carry it back with them to the guild so that we can melt through the lock with a few acid drops and see what's inside (as it is highly unlikely we will find the key that belongs to the chest," Niot explained.

"Hmm. You said you were quite durable, correct?" Tamin asked as she turned her head back to the chatot.

"Yes, and I will be safe going through this dungeon," he answered.

"In that case, could I have a few of your feathers?"

"What for?"

"Well if they're thin and won't bend easily (from being durable), then we could stick them in and move the lock pins around to-... actually, nevermind," Tamin began saying before she realized that the words coming out of her mouth made it sound like skills a criminal would have and would possibly make her seem to be not moral enough to be a guild explorer or provoke questions on her past.

"What is it that you were going to say, Tamin?" Niot asked, putting some authority in his voice.

"Nothing. My head was going in weird directions there, not fully sure what I was saying myself; to be honest," Tamin said as she got up, "Sometimes a lack of sleep can cause your speech to be as irrational as your dreams, you know? Come on, let's keep moving."

"...Right," Niot said before he clicked his pen once again and wrote more notes down.

As they continued on in the dungeon, Locke was as well.

The shinx easily fended off the various pokemon that saw him. Though he did employ some stealth skills, he did so to ensure that he would get the jump on enemies rather than avoiding battles entirely. Unless they ran away, he never considered it to be a waste of time to fight and eagerly collected all that they left behind. He had only consumed one oran berry at that time.

As he continued to follow the path that his instincts led him on, he eventually came across one room that stood out. It was mostly blank with the standard plants the dungeon possesed, but at the back of it was Froslass hovering above the ground and looking at her hand as she rubbed parts of it together in boredom.

"Froslass?" Locke asked.

"Hmm? Ah, so you've found me," Froslass said as she turned to face Locke. "Wait, where is your partner?"

"I don't know, I lost her at some point earlier in the dungeon. But I found you," he explained as he got up to her.

"You should really find her again before you finish this mission," froslass said.

"Oh, alright," Locke said as he sat down and reached above his left shoulder, "I guess the flares are useful after all. This should call them right to me,"

Locke got the flare out and set it down. He used his upper paws to point the rod towards a long pathway that was in the direction of the dungeon entrance, and once he aimed it he brought his mouth towards the strap. The shinx bit down on it with his teeth and pulled his head away to tear it off.

Upon the strap being removed, the upper part of it blasted off at a high speed, leaving behind a contrail of yellow smoke that produced light and a loud sound when it was initially fired off. The projectile continued zooming across the dungeon for a few seconds until it hit against a tree. Upon impact it bursted to produce an even louder sound and a large cloud of yellow smoke, which persisted.

From another room in the dungeon, Tamin heard the flare being used with her large minccino ears. Though she did not know what the flares sounded like at that point, it sounded like nothing else in the dungeon in both tone and volume, and sounded far more artificial than natural, which made it clear to her that it was Locke's doing.

She got down on all fours and sprinted in the direction of the sound, with Niot closely in tow. After only a few rooms and a few seconds of running, she saw the stream of yellow smoke hovering in the air and causing the pathway to be brighter than the rest. She approached it and turned her head in the direction of the smoke's origin, where she was both Locke and Froslass down the path.

"There they are!" the shinx announced upon seeing her.

"Where were you?!" Tamin asked as she got back onto two legs and walked towards Locke.

"I went to pick up some items and it seems you two lost track of me. But I managed to find Froslass, so the test should be over!"

"Not quite," Froslass interjected. "The purpose of this test was to simulate a rescue mission. You are halfway done by finding me, but now you must also escort me out of the dungeon safely."

"Oh, that's right. Well, we're all back together now so that shouldn't be difficult to do."

Niot checked his watch again as the four all got together again. Locke took the lead once more while Tamin, Froslass and Niot got behind them in that order, and they followed the trail of smoke to start going back towards the dungeon's entrance.

"You really shouldn't have wandered off back there," Tamin criticized Locke, rubbing her paws a bit to console them, "I was really worried being alone,"

"I saw some coins on the ground so I went over to collect them, then I got caught up in a fight," he explained.

"You didn't need to go after those. You needed to stick with the team so we could find Froslass together," Tamin said as the group began to enter a wider part of the forest dungeon.

"I need to collect those to sustain myself. Besides, I found Froslass anyway and we got back together, so it is all fine."

"I mean, you're great at doing these dungeons by yourself (you've more than proven that), but I just don't think you're very good at working in a t-"

Tamin's talking was interrupted by a loud roar in front of them. Ahead there was an aggron that had stepped into the same wide part of the dungeon. It stood directly at a chokepoint to block the pathway as it thinned out again, and had a face of primal ferocity.

Locke got himself down in a battle stance while Tamin looked behind her after the initial shock. When she did, she saw froslass slowly going backwards with Niot stepping back as well.

"I'm just the pokemon you're to be escorting, you're going to have to handle this yourself," she said while her hands were in a defensive position.

"How are we supposed to get around this?" Tamin frantically asked.

"If you can just distract it a bit, I'm sure I can handle this. I've fought bigger before," Locke said as he focused himself.

"Wait-"

The aggron charged forward towards them, forcing action to be taken. Locke dodged to the left while Tamin dodged to the right so they both got on its side. The aggron then turned its body towards Locke and focused on him. Before Locke could pull off an electric attack, it swiped one of its claws towards him which forced him to move. Locke quickly got off a light attack using his claws that dealt little damage, which was followed up by the aggron swinging its other arm down on the ground.

Tamin stopped herself right behind where the aggron was to observe the fighting. Locke continuously tried to find a moment to prepare electricity as his claws did barely anything, but he couldn't quite find an opening for it. Eventually, the aggron managed to connect an attack on the shinx, which knocked him across the area. When she saw it, the minccino knew she had to do something to help with the fight.

Acting before she thought it out, Tamin ran towards the aggron, jumped onto its tail and quickly climbed up its body. She reached its shoulders when it began to shift its focus to her and trying to pull her off, giving Locke plenty of time to fully recover. Tamin clenched down hard to keep a grip as the massive pokemon did everything it could to throw her off of the body. She tried to think of any plan she could possibly do to fight back, until she realized that her tail was drooping down close to the pokemon's elbow. She suddenly recalled some of the things she would do to play with her siblings and got an idea she both considered absurd and felt was the only thing she could do in the situation she put herself into.

She brought her tail closer into the aggron's elbow and shook around the end of it to try to tickle the large pokemon. Almost immediately, the beast's ferocious growls were replaced by the sounds of it trying to hold back laughter as it staggered and recoiled. To Tamin's amazement, her idea was actually working.

While the aggron transitioned to full laughter and began doing everything it could to hold in the laughter, Locke fully recovered and was charging up with electricity. Tamin closed her eyes and moved her tail as fast as she could, both holding her grip and tickling like her entire life depended on it. Eventually the aggron managed to get control of one of his arms long enough to punch at the minccino, causing Tamin to go off in one blow. But right after she was sent to the ground, Locke fired off a powerful thunderbolt at the aggron. The attack managed to cause serious damage and bruises, but failed to paralyze.

The aggron turned to Tamin again with anger in its eyes. Tamin tried to scoot away while she was still fallen on her butt, but she had limited space to back away into. But as she went back, her paw touched against her flare she still had at the bottom of her backpack. She turned her head to look at it and gripped it with her paws. Suddenly, Tamin began remembering Niot's full description regarding the flares and how they looked when Locke used his.

"Screw it," she thought to herself.

Tamin pulled the flare out again and got up on two feet. She stepped towards the aggron's head, pointed the end of the flare at it, and gripped the strap with her other paw. While it was almost point-blank against the pokemon's head, Tamin violently ripped the strap off.

The flare activated and created a loud sound as the end exploded shortly after it was launched off. The both of them were flashed by the large amount of light, and both were stunned at the same time. The aggron staggered backwards out of the cloud of tan smoke while Tamin fell to the floor with tears beginning to come from her eyes and her paws trying to hold her ears closed. The aggron was the first to recover from the flare's stun, and began stomping back. Although his movement was limped and off. But before the aggron could recover the ground it just lost, Locke leaped up onto its back, put his claws around the aggron's neck, and began to discharge electricity straight into its spinal system while getting around most of the armor plates it had. The shinx spent a few seconds pumping electricity into the pokemon as it rapidly drained its health, leading to it giving up and beginning to collapse. It fell to the side as Locke jumped off just as it began falling to prevent himself from being crushed. A second afterwards, Tamin began to stumble out of the tan smoke cloud; her eyes closed and still crying. Once she was out, her eyes stopped watering and she regained awareness of her surroundings.

"I-is it defeated?" Tamin asked.

"Yes," Niot said as he and Froslass went back to them, "And I got to witness all of it. I'm certainly glad that happened as well; I got to see much of what your performance is like while working together in a difficult fight."

"Whoo~... That fight is over," Locke said as he began to calm down again and his heart slowed.

"We should continue going out of the dungeon now," Froslass interjected, "Come on, I'm sure there isn't going to be many more dangers left on the way out."

End of chapter 3.


	4. A New Life

Locke and Tamin sat quietly in the guild master office while Espeon read every last thing chatot wrote on their field test. All while Niot stood behind him to look at the papers as well.

The sheer silence of everyone there broken only by the sound of a page being turned made the situation bizarrely suspenseful for the two aspiring guild members.

It continued for several painstaking minutes as doubt and worry slowly crept their way into their minds. The only thing they did was to look at Espeon's reactions on what he was reading and try to figure out what was going on on the psychic's head. Locke and Tamin occasionally glanced at each other in this process.

"Locke," Espeon finally said to break the silence as he finished reading and looked up at him.

"Yes?" Locke responded in a tone of mixed emotions.

"I am pleased to read about your skills in combat and your strength. Even if you did wander off during the test mission.

Currently our guild only has one electric type in it, and she isn't even pure electric. So I believe you will be a useful addition to our guild.

And Tamin."

"Yes?" Tamin responded, unsure of what the guildmaster would say about her.

"Although we technically have several normal types in the guild, they are people like me and chatot who don't really go on missions and not are expeditionists. For that reason, I believe you will prove valuable to this guild.

And as I look through Niot's notes, I don't see enough of a reason to not recruit you.

So, you are both in."

A wave of excitement went across Locke and Tamin as smiles beamed across their faces. They had much jubilation at the prospect.

"Oh, one quick thing." Espeon spoke while he pulled out a drawer, "What color of scarf do you want? we wear them to distinguish that we are a part of the guild."

"Let's do a purple one!" Locke exclaimed, still excited.

"Uh, a red one would be nice (if you have that)," Tamin spoke.

Espeon spent a moment digging around a drawer before pulling the scarves they described.

"Here!" Espeon said as he tossed the scarves to them. "Tell me if you need help tying them."

Both of them quickly got the bandana scarves around their neck, tying it in front of their necks and rotating it around to get it right.

"_Wait, cinccino wear their fur as a scarf. So what will I do when I evolve?_" Tamin thought to herself, "_I don't know, I guess I'll just have to figure that out later._"

"They look great on both of you," Espeon said, "now come on. Let's get you introduced to the guild. I'll be the one to give you a tour of this guildhouse."

Espeon went around his desk and began walking out of his room. Locke, Tamin, and Niot followed him closely.

They opened the door to get out and stepped into the greater guild. They turned and went through the gateway into the mess hall, passing by the quest board the guild used along the way.

The mess hall was mostly full even though lunch had not started yet, being packed with pokemon who had prematurely arrived to wait for the meal.

"Alright everyone!" Espeon announced.

The attention of everyone was caught as they instinctively turned their heads to look at them.

Espeon stood and smiled proudly with everyone looking at him, Locke being on his left and Tamin being on his right.

"I would like to introduce our two newest guild members! Everyone meet Locke the shinx and Tamin the minccino!"

The guild roared and cheered at them enthusiastically. Excited to see new members to the guild. It was quite the self-esteem boost for Tamin and a moment of welcoming for Locke.

After the crowd died down, Espeon to speak to Locke and Tamin once more.

"Come. Let me explain how things are going to work around here and give you a tour."

Espeon started walking off, giving a flick of his tail to signal Locke and Tamin to follow him.

"Meals happen at 7:00 AM, 12:00 PM and 7:00 PM. Try your best to do a mission every day, but don't feel too bad if you end up missing a day," Espeon explained, "If you are sick, injured, or help the guild through a different method other than missions then you will be given mission leave."

"Those are some odd times to have meals at," Tamin pointed out.

"We have some nocturnal pokemon here that sleep at different times. The schedule is made so they have supper when you'll have breakfast and vice versa.

They are asleep right now, but you'll get to see them at supper time."

"Oh, that's nifty."

"Yeah. My sister is nocturnal and she runs the guild at nighttime."

They moved through a room with a staircase downwards. Skipping past it, they went into a hallway of bed chambers at the east edge of the guild. There they saw a sylveon walking down, who went over to them on sight.

"Sylveon, these are our new members. Locke and Tamin, this is Sylveon."

"Hello there," The sylveon said to them as he got close to them.

"So is he also your sibling?" Tamin asked Espeon.

"Actually no," Sylveon responded, "We aren't blood related in any way."

"Right. Sylveon is one of the higher ups in the guild like Niot. He's our rules enforcer who makes sure all members are following the rules established in the guild, though he doesn't make the rules himself."

"That's right," Sylveon said as he ducked down to view Locke and Tamin at the same level, "Espeon might make the rules, but I'll be the one to make sure you are following them correctly."

"Understood," Tamin said, mentally preparing herself for having to possibly deal with Sylveon in the future.

"Mhm. Let's keep going now," Espeon said to them.

They continued down the hallway and turned to go out a set of doors, leading to the outside. Once out, they were met with a path directly leading to the treehouse building on the east-side of the guild.

"That's where a lot of the flying types and grass types sleep and like to hang out. It is our secondary building," Espeon continued to explain.

"Hey, off-topic question." Locke inquired, remembering something due to Tamin having asked about the situation with normal types.

"Shoot," Espeon responded.

"Back in the office you mentioned that there was only one other electric type in this guild. Who exactly would that be?"

"Heeeyaaaaa!" another pokemon behind them said out loud.

Locke turned around to see an emolga standing there and smiling. She was posing with one of her arms on her thigh, one of her eyes closed, and was giving a peace-sign over her open eye. On her forehead was a pair of goggles that had some specks of sawdust on them but were otherwise well-maintained.

"I'm Olivia!" she announced as she began to get closer.

"Uh, greetings; I'm Locke," the shinx replied.

"You just look so adorable with it; I just want to snuggle-wuggle you so much," Olivia said as she began petting Locke on the neck. Although Locke enjoyed this, Tamin raised her paw and knocked the emolga's hand away to stop this slightly creepy display.

"Should we keep moving?" Espeon asked after watching them.

"Please do," Tamin stated.

The tour continued. They went around the guild and to a large greenhouse building at the back of the guild. It had a glass tunnel between it and the main guildhouse so it didn't require pokemon to go outside to get to it. Despite the autumn environment all around, it had a variety of plants inside that were fully green and blooming.

"So that covers it with our side-buildings and places," Espeon said, "Now let's continue with the guildhouse's interior."

"Uh, could we eat first?" Locke asked.

"Oh right, I forgot about lunch," he said, "Sorry about that, I guess I was just a little too excited at getting new guild members."

Right as Espeon said that, Tamin's stomach rumbled audibly. Causing her to look down at it and the others to look towards it.

"I didn't," Tamin said.

"Okay, lunch then!"

They ran over to the mess hall to find that lunch had already started. Like they had done with breakfast, they took two unused eats next to one another and gathered food to chow down on. The menu available hadn't altered much from the last meal. Tamin took small bites and ate slowly while Locke violently chowed down on food, pulling with his teeth to rip off sections of food so he could consume it.

As they ate, Tamin peered around the room to get a close look and study the pokemon within the confines of the room with her. She noticed there was less pokemon for lunch then there were for breakfast. The minccino analyzed the room for all information she could gleam from that point; taking inventory of the pokemon that she might have to deal with in the future while staying quiet. With Locke, his attention was drawn solely at the food- until a dewott on the same table leaned over to talk to him.

"So, you're the new members here?" the dewott asked, his voice making it clear they were male.

Locke took a moment to swallow what he had in his mouth before he responded.

"Yeah, just passed the test to get in."

"Nice. Locke and Tamin, if I remember correctly?"

"Yep~," Locke replied.

"Gotcha. 'Just call me Dewott," the water pokemon said, "I'm glad you came, I didn't expect anymore to join this late in the year."

"Yeah. I've been considering this for a little while, and I decided I just didn't want to go through another winter outside," Locke said before returning to his food.

"Makes enough sense. Ey, you seem to have a good appetite there, but I betcha can't eat more than me," Dewott said, sounding eager and excited for the challenge he had just proposed.

"I'm not sure having a competition is a good idea or really fair considering your body masses-" Tamin broke her silence after eavesdropping in to say, but was interrupted.

"You're on!" Locke called out.

The shinx and the dewott suddenly grabbed whatever food they could and began gorging themselves on them, leaving crumbs to fly about while they focused purely on stuffing their mouths with as much as they could keep down. Tamin and other pokemon there had to turn their heads away from the display of competitive gluttony with a feeling of disgust, almost losing their own appetite from it.

Above the feasting pokemon was a large painting that was in the mess hall. It was extremely well detailed and would be mistaken as a photograph at first glance. It showed the whole guild together at the mess hall, spending time together. Although it was clearly made a while ago as there were several pokemon in the guild the were not displayed on the painting. There was a riolu, a growlithe and a pair of espurr, which weren't present in the guild by the time Locke had joined the guild.

The meal settled down as many had stuffed themselves with varying levels of reckless abandon. Once it was over, Locke and Tamin were approached by Espeon again.

"Are you ready again now?" He asked them.

"Yeah." Both Locke and Tamin said together.

"Good." Espeon said, "Let me give you a proper tour of the interior of this building now."

They nodded and came along.

The full tour lasted an hour as it went across the three floors in the guildhouse.

The upper floor was simplistic. The center of it was cut out to have a balcony looking over the entire mess hall. There were side railings made out of wood with very fancy designs, the designs were what Tamin found as easily the most visually appealing part of the building which for the most part had details which bothered her.

The upstairs rooms were more personal chambers for the guild members, as well as a few closets. There were also doorways to thin and long balconies to allow the outdoors to be viewed.

There were two different staircases leading up to the upstairs. However, Tamin also noticed that there were support beams in the mess hall room. Knowing her ability to climb trees, Tamin figured that she could climb up the support beams as an alternative way to get between the floors.

The main floor was more complex. The mess hall was at the perfect center of the floor, and by extension, the whole guildhouse. To the south of it was the foyer room which had the main guild entrance, which was oddly shaped but symmetrical nonetheless.

To the west of the mess hall was a rectangular kitchen of decent size. To the east of the mess hall was both Espeon's office and a room that housed a quest board right south of that. The office and quest board room combined was the same size as the kitchen.

To the north of the mess hall was the restrooms area, which had several rooms segregated by gender, size, and shape for the comfort of the guild members.

Northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast of the mess hall and connecting to different rooms were four stairwell rooms. The north ones contained staircases that went upstairs while the south ones contained stairs that went downstairs. The four rooms were small and enclosed, making them more private than the other rooms of the floor.

Wrapping around the restrooms area, kitchen, questboard room, Espeon's office and the staircase rooms were hallways on the north, east and west edges of the guild. They contained personal chambers for the different guild members, with Locke and Tamin's chambers in the west wing. Side entrances to the guild were found on the west and east wings.

The last floor they had to tour was the basement. Unlike the other two floors that were symmetrical or near-symmetrical in design, this had no such details in its design and muted coloration all around. In truth, it had no design at all. It was all dugout indiscriminately, whenever the guild needed a new room they would just find a new space and dig out another room without referring to any grander design blueprint. It was almost labyrinthian.

Although the majority of the place was disorientating, there were two clear rooms, two clear details. A large lounge room that was even bigger than the mess hall of the main floor, where both of the staircases connected to. It contained one rectangular area with the east staircase, a hallway on the northwest of it which turned a corner and led to the west staircase. It was one of the hang-out places in the guild and the most active one at that, being well-furnished and having the size to hold the entire guild.

The other notable room was the main hall in the underground was a long hallway that was stylized to look like a mineshaft. The design was rather overkill in detail (making it have more mineshaft-esque features than an actual one would have) but it was clear what they were intending. It connected from the lobby and went northward from there.

Besides the lounge, the basement was also very unkempt. Some of the walls were stone, some were covered in wooden boards and some were still bare dirt.

Espeon was used to it and Locke didn't care, but it was frustrating to Tamin. The inconsistency of its materials, the unsymmetrical details in many of the wooden walls and the varying brick size in the stone walls bugged her to no end. She wished, she was compelled to change it and make it right, but completely lacked the ability to change it. Instead, her eyes could always lock on some detail that annoyed her and no matter how hard she tried, her focus was almost always on them as the tour of the basement went on.

She wasn't exactly sure what was more painful, the orderless details of the design or her impuissance to change them. Either way, it was terrible to Tamin and a hell she only wanted to get out of. Beyond the frustration, she found it deeply confusion as to why Locke and Espeon weren't frustrated in the same way she was and how anyone could spend time in a place like that. She was sure that being deeply bothered by those things was normal, so she had no idea why the others didn't reflect those same feelings. Despite that, she mostly kept quiet.

As the tour continued, Tamin noticed an audino in one of the rooms. The room was a well stocked infirmary complete with several beds, screens, cabinets of supplies and countertops. It was unlike the other rooms in the hallway.

"Is she a guild member?" Tamin asked while pointing at the audino.

"Yes," Espeon responded.

"Isn't she a normal type? I thought you said there were no normal types here," Tamin questioned.

"There are no normal type explorers, but there are normal types in the guild. Niot helps with management and paperwork, and Audino serves as the guilds doctor, nurse and dentist. They are members, but they don't do missions outside of the guildhouse," Espeon explained to them.

"Yeah, makes sense," Locke commented.

"What's with some here being called by their species name and some being called by actual names?" Tamin asked.

"Everyone has a name. Some just prefer to be called by their species," he said, "It's just sort of pokemon instincts to be addressed to by your species name and naturally respond to that easiest. My name is Herald, as I've mentioned."

"Okay then," Tamin replied.

"Got it," Locke responded. "I can kinda see why you prefer 'Espeon' over that."

Espeon was mildly offended by Locke's comment, but decided it wise to not speak up about it.

After that, they were done exploring the basement. They went back up to the main floor and to the outer halls.

"So that's the guildhouse," Espeon stated to them.

"This place looks great!" Locke proclaimed, happy with what he would be living in for the foreseeable future.

"Oh, one more thing," Espeon said.

"Yes?"

"Those rooms you slept in this morning are yours. You can do whatever you want to it.

We also have some spare furniture in storage downstairs, so feel free to use whatever you find down there for your room."

"If that's the case, I think I know what I'll be doing the next few hours," Tamin said, looking forward to being able to design something catered to herself, although not looking forward to having to head down into the basement to do it.

"That's good. What about you, Locke?"

"I think I'm just going to go on a jog. It's how I build up electricity so it'll be good for me."

"You do that then."

They separated from Espeon and spent the next few hours doing those things. Locke wasn't seen by anyone during this time as he explored the different paths around the guild. Tamin spent time putting as much detail into her room as she could, enjoying how she could design things that catered to her own interests without anyone else judging. The minccino found herself getting carried away with it and the room giving her a sense of belonging that she assumed was the feeling pokemon normally got from being home.

It was hours later before Locke came back into the guild. Heading back exclusively to get supper, which he knew was going to happen soon.

Supper was much like the previous meals, though the nocturnal guild members that had been absent during lunch were awake again to join the meal. Tamin spent the activity reclusive like she was previously, but Locke instead looked around at the pokmeon to see who he would work with in the future. Dewott was preoccupied by talking to a female mienfoo, so Locke knew he wasn't up for talking. As he checked the nocturnal pokemon that were there and not present in lunch, his eyes caught something that was familiar to him. It was a female weavile at the table that he felt he had met before. The weavile noticed him and their eyes met one another so they could make eye contact.

"Locke?" the weavile asked after swallowing the food she had in her mouth.

"Crystal? Is that you?" Locke asked.

"Yeah! Long time no see!" she said, her voice getting raised.

Locke jumped down from his chair to walk towards the weavile so he could talk with her directly.

"It's been so long since we were together, I see you evolved, that's nice?"

"You two know each other?" Tamin asked, interjecting into the conversation.

"Yeah, she used to be a rogue explorer like me."

"We actually have a pretty long past together," Crystal explained, "We met over a year ago and went through a lot of mystery dungeons together. We got separated and I joined this guild a few weeks after that happened."

"I found her in a dungeon having a heatstroke. I got her to a pool to get her cooled down. We basically became partners after that." Locke explained, "Sad truth is that being epic and athletic doesn't circumvent the need for hydration. And you're a lot less epic if you're a dehydrated pile of dust."

"Yeah. Ice types don't do too well in the summer heat." Crystal said while scratching the back of her head awkwardly.

"We got a little separated, but it looks like were in the same place now.

All's well and ends well, am I right?"

"To me, this looks a lot more like a beginning than an ending," Espeon commented on them.

"I'm glad you're together then." Tamin said.

They had supper together, then spent the rest of the daylight with each other and hours afterwards. They hanged out in the lounge together, catching up on everything that had happened since they last met. Tamin had gone to sleep in her room shortly after sunset as she was used to, but it took Locke several more hours before he eventually went to his bed again.

**End of chapter 4.**


	5. Friends and Enemies

Like the day before; Locke slept soundly on his bed before the persistent sound of knocking began, which caused him to abruptly wake up and get into an awake state.

"Wake up, wake up. You're a guild member now so you have follow the schedule," Espeon said through the closed door.

Locke spent a moment to feel the bandana around his neck. A way of confirming that everything that happened yesterday actually did happen and reminding himself of this new life he is in.

"Coming!" Locke said as he came out of his room, once again seeing Espeon and a still waking up minccino.

"So what's the plan for today?" Locke asked Tamin.

"I think we should wait until the afternoon before going on any missions." Tamin stated, "I need a little bit more rest and it seems to be the time everyone else starts attempting missions anyway."

"Sounds good. In that case I'll be going on a jog this morning."

"You sure about that?"

"It's how I produce electricity. So it would benefit me a lot more than just resting."

"Are you sure about heading off before breakfast?" Espeon inquired, coming into the conversation.

"Oh right, that's a thing."

They went on to have breakfast as usual. They saw nocturnal pokemon head off to their rooms one by one after they finished the meal. From there, Locke and Tamin split up.

Locke passed by the pool as he walked out of the main building and just began a usual jog down some of the paths in the guild. But it was not long before he heard someone joining him in the jog and coming from behind.

"Hey! You're Locke right?"

Locke turned to see a zorua was the one catching up to him.

"Yes?"

"That's nice," the zorua responded, "Call me 'Hunter'!"

"Nice to meet you then," Locke responded as they continued to walk. "Any particular reason you came to talk to me?"

"Just trying to make some friends and meet our newcomers. Is that now a crime?"

"Uh, no. that is okay to do. I suppose I should be knowing more about the other guild members."

"Believe me, the guild is so big that you won't be making friends with everybody and you'll make some enemies within it as well," the zorua said, "But I'd make an argument that having both is necessary for a fun life, if you know what I mean~."

"And what would some of the enemies of yours be?" Locke questioned.

"I kind of have a beef with Sylveon."

"Wait, isn't Sylveon the pokemon that makes sure everyone follows the rules?"

"Yeah. He ruins all of the fun."

Locke squinted at Hunter when he made the comment for all of the implications behind it.

"So is Tamin your friend?" Hunter asked.

"I guess, I mean I've only met her yesterday."

"Just a friend, or something a little more?~" Hunter asked with a slight smile. It was a question he knew the answer to but he was just trying to get a reaction from Locke.

"...Just a friend." Locke replied in a slightly annoyed tone, "You mentioned you didn't like sylveon and he ruined your fun, can you expand on that?"

"I just do some harmless pranks on some of the other guild members with my sister. Buckets of water on doors, plastic wrap in various places, tricks with my illusions, stuff like that. And he's always coming down on me for it. Making me stay in one room for a while and stuff."

"Sister? Is there another zorua here?"

"Yuki is a vulpix. Technically she is my half-sister. I don't really consider that too relevant though; family is family."

"Ah. I see."

"Going back to Tamin, would you at all say she likes to have things clean? I remember reading that minccinos like cleaning somewhere."

"I think she said she wanted to clean her room yesterday, so I guess she is. Why do you ask?"

Hunter turned his head and smiled a bit before he stated, "I just gotta know what my options for new pranks we can pull are."

"What?" Locke asked surprised, "You can't just start messing with people just because they joined the guild."

"Is there any particular reason why I can't?" Hunter questioned.

"It's just ain't right. I'm going to let you do that," Locke said, his poor grammer leaving parts to be filled in by the imagination.

"You said she was just your friend you met a few days ago, now all of a sudden you're getting very defensive of her?" the zorua said while continuing his cunning smile. "Also, I think you meant 'not' instead of 'ain't'."

"I don't want to have this conversation anymore." Locke said as he sprinted off onto a different path to get away from Hunter.

Meanwhile, Tamin was looking around the guild to see if there was anyone else she could talk with. Many of the guild members were still around the table and plenty were talking to other members.

She was right outside the mess hall and leaned herself against a wall. She perked her large minccino ears up and listened carefully at the different conversations that were taking place around the building. She felt that her highest priority was to form a routine within her new life at the guild, but at that moment she sought to gleam information via eavesdropping. Tamin didn't consider what she was doing to be wrong, it was simply what she felt was necessary for her own defense.

There were more voices to distinguish between than what she was used to, but the accents were quite a bit different from one another as each was a different species. It wasn't even something Tamin needed to consciously plan out to do, she had a certain compulsion to do it whenever she walked by a conversation. To her, it was a hobby.

When Tamin felt she heard enough from one spot, she began moving and traced along the walls while continuing to focus. "Do you think we should get a studio downstairs?", "You did made sure to give Mawile the book back, right?", "We should do some more difficult missions", "How do you think wigglytuff's guild is doing?" and many more unrelated comments and questions were picked up by the minccino's ears.

In her focus, Tamin picked up on a phrase that she could discern was directed towards her specifically rather than conversations between other guildmates.

"Ahoy, up-and-at-em'!" a rockruff said.

Tamin directed her attention to the pokemon, looking into its eager eyes.

"Uh, hello there?" Tamin said.

"You're the new member, right?" the rockruff asked, still with an eagerness in its eyes that was additionally reflected with wags of its tail.

"Well, one of the two new members. I'm Tamin."

"That's great, I'm Scampi!" she replied, "I used to be the newest member here before you!"

"That's neat." Tamin responded.

"It sure is! So, how good did you think you are?"

"If you're talking about how well I can do with missions, then I'll be honest and say I'm not going to be the best here," Tamin said, feeling it as a moment where she could tell the truth, "I think I was lucky to get into here."

"That's alright, I suck as well!" Scampi said in humility and modesty, "I think Espeon accepts pokemon that show potential over ones that are already skilled."

"Well, that's good to hear," Tamin said with an expression of relief over her face, "I do hope to stay here for awhile as I do need a place for winter; I'm still feeling out a proper routine to follow through though."

"Have you met any of the other members yet?" Scampi asked.

"Not too many," Tamin said as she tilted her head upwards to think, "Armin, Max, and Rustin from when we were initially found, the administrators, and Froslass. Besides them I don't think I've directly interacted with anyone else- bit odd but not really."

"Well, let me show you around then!" Scampi said as she stepped forward and grabbed one of Tamin's arms, "Come with me!"

"Uhh, okay; but I don't think this is necessary," Tamin awkwardly pleaded as the rockruff began to pull her around.

"Trust me, there's a bunch of great pokemon here for you to meet!" she said as her voice began to accelerate in speed from enthusiasm.

They went into the mess hall together where they were faced with the numerous scarved pokemon inside.

"There's dwebble, he's kind of shy. There's ludicolo, he's always fun. There's the twins nidorino and nidorina. There's mawile, she just likes to be by herself and isn't very fun-."

"Scampi, stop-" Tamin said to Scampi as the rockruff continued to speak.

"Dewott's always butting heads with others for fun, Armin's reclusive-"

"I don't need to hear all of this-"

"Buizel preaches about stuff I don't really get, Mienfoo's always with Dewott-"

"Scampi!" Tamin raised her voice to ensure it would be heard.

"Yeah?"

"I- I just don't want to be paraded around like this," Tamin explained, "I don't want everyone to be looking at me and attracting attention."

"But this place's like a family. You've got to get to know everyone."

"And I'd rather be passive here then be treated like family," Tamin said as her tone suddenly got a bit more aggravated, "Sorry, I just… I think I'll keep working on decorating my room; I still have things to do with that."

The minccino turned and began walking off, leaving Scampi behind as she was confused by the reactions and changes of emotion.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I appreciate you trying to help, but I just need a few minutes."

While Tamin walked back to her chamber, Locke changed his course and began heading back to the guildhouse after he had spent enough time to walk and travel around, as he felt he had spent enough time out. He had decided he spent enough time outside and began returning to the guildhouse.

His jogging was reduced to a walk. But as he continued forth, a flying pokemon suddenly flew down from the skies and landed fight in front of the shinx. His walk was reduced to a standstill position as he jolted back from the spontaneousness of the event.

The pokemon was an emolga, who Locke was able to recognize as being the Olivia she had met yesterday after only a split second of analysis.

"Heya Locky!" she excitedly said.

"Uh, hey Olivia-"

"Just call me Olive!

"Alright- OLIVE- what are you here for?"

"I just wanna chit-chat with our new guild member!"

"Okay, I can get into that," Locke said as he began walking forward again to go around the emolga, but she followed him, "What do you do?"

"I'm a craftsman! Or craftswomen- er- WHATEVER!" she said, still sounding overly energetic as she slid the goggles on her forehead down to her eyes, "I mainly work with wood and I was the one who carved out the hand railings in the guildhouse. I've made some crossbows, I make a lot of the guild's flares, I've made a lot of furniture and-

Oh silly me, I'm hogging the conversation! Tell me about the stuff you do!"

"I've just been going through mystery dungeons my whole life and don't remember anything before then," Locke explained as Olivia once again got right in front of him and well within his personal space, "Not much else for me, personally. To be frank I'm exactly the kind of type that would die in the middle of a random dungeon without any poems, songs, or even words on a tombstone written about me as I pass. Quite a perfect and befitting end for a man of few words like I, if I do say so myself."

"Oh, that's alright then! I'm sure we'll have a bunch of great things to do together while you're here! You and I are the only electric types here, afterall."

"I suppose that makes sense, they'll want to use us more if we're the only ones who bring a certain trait to the table," Locke said, trying to take another step backwards to get some added distance from the emolga, "Huh, I wonder if that means Tamin will get a little overworked since she's apparently the only normal type explorer here."

"You mean that minccino? Eh, don't worry about her. Don't cha just think electric types are better cut out than the rest of 'em?

Tell you what, we can go out into town and get to a nice restaurant together. I know several places that you'll just adore- absolutely electrifying on the tongue~" Olivia said as she took another step forward to re-enter Locke's personal space.

"I'm going to be saving my money up carefully; winter is coming up soon so I want to be sufficiently sparse with my spending so I don't run out over the sheer cold," the shinx told her.

"Don't sorry, it can be my treat! You deserve it just because of how absolutely adorable you are~" the emolga said as she grabbed Locke's cheeks to slightly squeeze them and then proceeded to pet his head, "Come with me and we'll cast off to town right now. We have time to look all around for whatever you want the most, and I can be paying for all of it! Trust me: You'll. LOVE. It."

Through this interaction, Locke looked up towards the emolga's eyes. Through the goggles she was wearing she could make out a twinkle shining in her eyes. At the time he assumed this was the twinkle of enthusiasm and not the loose sparks from the sanity wires inside of her brain short circuiting. In that moment of them tightly together and Olivia touching him, Locke could feel his fight-or-flight instincts beginning to beg him to action. The shinx no longer wanted to talk anymore in the situation he felt was getting creepier by the second; so he quickly acted by pushing the emolga away and making a sprint for the guildhouse.

"H-huh?! Wait, where are you going!" Olivia said as she was shoved back and Locke dashed away.

A few seconds into Locke full-on sprint, the emolga began running after him. She built up speed with her legs then quickly jumped into the air and spread out her arms. The wings were opened up and she began to glide after Locke. It became a chase with the emolga's speed exceeding that of the shinx and the distance between them receding, but the guildhouse was becoming closer at the same time.

While only a few meters were left between them, Locke closed in on one of the side doors. He delved inside and promptly ran into the guild's halls, where he spotted a familiar looking minccino. He got towards them and lowered his speed to stop.

"Tamin!" Locke called out.

"Oh, hey!" they said as they turned around to him, "Are you okay? What's been going on with you?"

"Having a bit of a wacky morning," Locke said through his breath, "There's this kinda crazy emolga that I think is wanting to force me on a d-"

"Locky! Where are you going?" Olivia said as she came into the building.

"Oh my gosh- okay, look: maybe we could do something together later today, but so far you haven't exactly given me a great first impression of you," Locke said as he turned his head back towards the emolga, "I would just like to be with someone I can trust right now; like Crystal or Tamin."

Locke felt a paw being placed on his shoulder in a reassuring and warm manner.

"I don't really know what's going on; but I got your back in this."

"Thanks a lot, Tamin," Locke replied.

Olivia stood in front of them for a few seconds, an expression of being deeply vexed was present on her face as she felt the situation which laid in front of her eyes was preposterous. Disappointment was then infused with the confusion in her face, and she spoke.

"Alright. Then I shall wait ever so patiently for later today so we can be together again," Olivia said as she wandered off, she put her hands together and by the side of her head, closing her eyes as she seemed to daydream.

"What was that all about?" Tamin asked.

"I don't fully know myself, she was trying to make me go to a restaurant with her and was stupid persistent and she was grabbing me, I just kinda ran away from that," Locke said.

"You can trust me. I'm not going to let her force you on dates or whatever."

"Thanks Tamin," Locke said as he lowered his head in relief, "It means a lot."

Suddenly, as Locke lowered his head he heard the minccino beside him start giggling to themselves, placing their hand on their mouth to try and keep it in. The chuckling was quite persistent.

"What's funny?" Locke questioned while raising his head and taking a step back.

"You thought I was Tamin this whole time." She spoke in a voice much different from her normal voice, "But it was me, HUNTER!"

All of a sudden the facade of a minccino dropped as the fur turned black and the image of a zorua formed with purple energy going around as he jumped to the side.

Locke stepped backwards in surprise as his face gave a look of horror.

"HA! I got you good!" Hunter exclaimed, "I only had one conversation to know you and I still managed to get enough meterial to get THAT face out of you. Oh man…"

While the zorua continued to laugh to himself, the shinx had his patience tested. With animosity kindling in his mind he stepped forward and supplanted his paw square on Hunter's chest.

"What are you doing?" Hunter asked as he looked down on the shinx's paw.

"I'll let actions speak louder than words here."

Locke extended all of his claws from their sheathes on his paw, each one stabbing towards the zorua's body. Following shortly thereafter, Locke evoked the electricity in him to channel it through the paw and straight forward. He didn't channel the volts necessary for it to be considered any electric type move, but it was far more than what would suffice if sending a message was his only objective.

Hunter jumped backwards. While his body was adapted to resisting electricity well and the claws drew little blood, the shock of suddenly getting attacked within the walls of the guildhouse was enough to surprise him.

While the zorua stepped back, Locke took a moment to discreetly pull his claws back into his paw whilst giving a disdainful gaze, his actions highlighting the attack.

"Never try that again," the shinx uttered.

Hunter looked back at Locke, giving a smile that circumvented any change in expression that was caused by the pain.

"Oh I think that was completely worth it," Hunter said.

"Why you little-"

"What's going on here?" the authoritative voice of Sylveon interrupted as it entered the room.

Both Locke and Hunter stopped to turn their heads to the voice, seeing Sylveon stand taller than them with a stern gaze and his feelers extended a bit farther than what his normal was.

"He hurt me," Hunter said, his pain and surprise not meeting his voice as he was not trying to make a tone that would make others sympathize with him, but rather to state the factual events in a steady manner.

"He was disguising himself as my friend to trick me," Locke told him.

"I know, he plays that as 'pranks' on the other guildmembers quite often, even though I've been explicit with him to not do so," Sylveon explained as he stepped closer, "But even so, harming another guildmember is never justified. If you have a problem you are to always consult me or the administrators of this guild, but never are you to physically harm another member of the guild. Do I make myself clear?"

"Um, yes, Sylveon," Locke replied, feeling awkward about the situation. "You have made yourself clear."

"Good," Sylveon spoke. "As this is just your first official day in the guild you are to be let off with a warning. But do not hurt anyone else in this guild again.

As for you, Hunter, come with me. I do believe there's an incident report to be scribed."

"Alright, alright, yeah, I'm coming."

Sylveon turned and walked off while Hunter went to his side. Locke stayed put to watch them, until he heard a voice call to him.

"Locke?" Tamin's voice was heard.

The shinx turned his head to see the minccino, feeling thankful that he knew this had to be the real Tamin this time.

"What's going on here?" She asked.

"Um. A lot's happened, and I don't really feel like going in detail," Locke responded, "Just a chaotic morning."

"Okay…" Tamin responded, "I just heard some commotion and I noticed your voice within it, so I got out of my room to head over."

"I appreciate the concern, but I guess it's over now. Say, do you know what time it is?"

"Eight sharp," Tamin answered.

"Wow, it's only been an hour? Okay then… Anything you want to do together before lunch?"

"Not really, I think I just want to spend some more time in my room," she said, feeling slightly awkward for wanting to just be alone.

"What do you do in there?"

"I mainly have some cloth sheets that I like folding up, then unfolding so I can fold them up again," she said, "I don't know, it feels very therapeutic."

"Uh, okay?"

"Never heard of that before?"

"Yeah. Doesn't sound too appealing to me, to be honest."

"That's fine, but that's what I plan to do."

"Got it. Hmm…"

Locke thought to himself, wondering what he would do to kill time. He didn't want to head outside again for at least a few hours and what Tamin described sounded mundane to him, so those two possibilities were both out in his mind. After further contemplation, he remembered the dewott that he had interacted with the day prior. With that in his mind, he left the hallway to search the guildhouse for him.

After only a minute in the search, he managed to see the pokemon he was looking for in the guild foyer. He was with a mienfoo, a fraxure, and a mawile with them all wearing a backpack. Locke wasted no time in approaching them.

"Hey Dewott!"

"Oh, ahoy Locke!" Dewott replied.

"Is there anything you want to do?" he asked as he came to a stop.

"Well, there's a lot, but unfortunately I'm about to head off on a mission," he explained. "Sorry, I just enjoy going off in the morning."

"Could I join you then?"

"Afraid not, pardner. We've already got a full team of four," he replied as he turned his head away from Locke to the three with him, "Hey, do any of you want to drop out to give room for him?"

"Sorry, but I would like to stick with Dewott," Mienfoo told Locke.

"Nah," the fraxure said.

"No. I'm already prepared, I'll be staying in this," Mawile said.

"No-go on that then. Sorry, Locke," Dewott said as he turned back towards the shinx, "Tell you what, you can think of some competitions or games we could do together and I'll try to make sure to do that with you when we get back. I did enjoy doing that eating competition with ya."

"Hmm. Okay then…" Locke replied, a tinge of disappointment setting in his voice again, "Say, you seem to like competitions quite a bit."

"Heck yeah! Those are what I live for!" Dewott said, but his eyes looked to the left after he spoke to look at the mienfoo once again, "Well, a part of it; at least."

"Why is that?"

"Well, to put a long story short, I grew up in a family with two siblings and we would constantly get into competitions with one another. We always did whatever we could to get the best on each other and we kept track o' the score," Dewott explained, shifting his stature into a prideful one as he did, "At the end, I came out as the family champion. And now I'm here working here, so it won't be long before I become the guild champion as well."

"Nice~" Locke replied, "Well, best of luck with that. You seem to have the demeanor for it down quite well already."

"Thanks, you too. Anyways, we should really be heading off on our mission now; so cya!"

"Bye!"

Locke stayed in the foyer to watch the four pokemon depart from the guildhouse, with him taking a moment to study their gear and rough formation as they left.

**End of chapter 5.**


	6. Exbidition

The stress and chaos the morning had brought upon subsided, and in its place a far calmer atmosphere took hold for the newly admitted shinx and minccino.

Tamin had carried away the time by spending it within the confines of her new personal chamber, most of it being spent doing her curious ritual of folding up cloth to be as perfect and neat as possible; even unfolding some cloth for the sole purpose of making it so she could put it together again. The minccino has become enticed by the room, as it gave her a feeling she couldn't fully feel for the longest time: the room truly felt like it was _hers_, and no one else's. Such simple things like having a door lock on the inside of the room instead of the outside were aspects she couldn't help but fawn over. In Tamin's mind she knew that the building as a whole was owned by Espeon and she had learned to keep her guard up, but she kept working at her room regardless.

Locke's time was exhausted through different means. Tamin was off doing what he considered boring, Dewott was away on an expedition to fill his own daily quota, and Crystal was asleep as a result of her species' nocturnal sleeping habits. The shinx did find it quite spectacular to be able to count three friends that he lived with, however, it was disappointing to know that none were a good candidate to burn off time with. In tandem with the fact that he sought to avoid another encounter with Hunter the zorua or Olivia the emolga, thus he ended up simply waiting in his minimalistic room to pass out the time.

As the hours skittered by, the meals of the guild came and went as well. Locke ravenously ate down like he had done before, but not to the exact same extent since he did not have Dewott to make a competition out of the action. While he did that,the minccino spent her time eating what nibbles she could bring herself mentally to do so as she searched for her appetite. While she did favor the freedom the guild presented far more than the home she used to live at, the minimally prepared food was one aspect she couldn't help but find inferior to the culinary she was once offered. The minccino did recall seeing a mienfoo eating some takeout meal, so that did offer her hope that she would have better things yet. Although the simple fact of the matter was that at the time she was absolutely broke- not having any money until she did her first mission.

Once the meal was done with, Locke and Tamin joined the crowd who migrated to where the quest board was situated. Along with the others there, they looked up at the bulletin board and discussed. Some missions were swift forays that could be done and gotten back from before supper started, some were longer and would require camp outs. The tasks ranged from bounty hunting, locating items, rescues, finding secret areas and more, with the areas they took place in being everything the continent could offer.

"Let's stick together for a mission," Tamin quietly said to Locke in his ear.

"Yeah, let's do that until we get to know others here better," the shinx replied.

"I'll let you pick a mission since you know more about this dungeon stuff then I do," Tamin said.

"Yeah, that's fair," Locke said just before he turned his head to shift his focus back towards the board, "Hmm… There's one to find an heirloom in a cavern dungeon, 'that sound good?"

"How difficult will the task be?" Tamin immediately asked.

"I don't really know, the thing's labeled with two stars and there are some other missions here that are labeled with four or five stars. So I'm guessing that's to measure difficulty in one way or another."

"Fair enough," Tamin said as she was forced to take a step closer to Locke due to the shuffling of the crowd of pokemon around them. "Do you think a cavern is best for you? Wouldn't the pokemon inside be immune to your electricity?"

"I've been to that place before, it's mostly just rock type and doesn't have any ground types inside from what I recall," he reassured, "Although that does bring up a good point about type coverage. If this guild works on teams of four, we should find someone who can deal with your weakness to fighting types and my weakness to ground types."

"So should we ask Rustin if he's willing to help us? Psychic beats fighting," Tamin said, not having any problem with knowing type match ups.

"I could be of your service instead of him~" another voice that was close by said to Locke and Tamin.

The duo checked who spoke, to which they saw a female meowstic in an assumed posture standing closeby. Her scarf was pure white and looked to be of a different texture then the scarves Locke and Tamin were adorned with.

"Who are you?" Locke asked.

"My name is 'Sebastien', I'm Rustin's sister," she told them, her voice almost being an entire octave softer then what the other pokemon spoke in, "Rustin's not the type to usually help out new guild members, but I think it would be a lovely idea to help you two out~"

"Thanks," Tamin said, thankful to have a more experienced member reach out to her, "So that brings us up to three team members, who should our fourth be?"

"Ideally it would be a grass type, since they have both an offensive and defensive advantage over ground types that I'd have a hard time with," Locke said, "Although we probably don't need that anyways. I'm pretty good at going through dungeons."

"I'd much rather be safe than be sorry," Tamin responded, "We'll get a grass type."

"Well, we do have a venusaur in the guild, but I don't think he'd be the best around new guild members, definitely the rough type," Sebastien explained.

"Is he good at missions?" Tamin inquired.

"Well yes but-"

"Then he'll be the best. I'm still feeling out how hard these dungeons will be and would like some more easy breaks. Believe me, I'm numb to a little toxicity."

"Okay then… I'll get him, you two get your backpacks ready (be a bit overprepared if you want to be)," Sebastien told them.

With a nod of agreement, the small team separated. Tamin tore the paper off from the bulletin board to retain it for later before she retrieved her backpack from her abode.

They took from the guild's supply stores in the basement, each of them gathered what they thought was necessary. Locke instructed Tamin on what would have been ideal with his honed dungeoneering knowledge, thus they both grabbed oran berries, a reviver seed, a pair of heal seeds, some food, a water canteen, and appropriate flares while they ignored the various trinkets that even Locke didn't recognize on the shelves. Tamin still hadn't felt sure for herself, so she grabbed an extra oran berry.

With preparations finished (and double checked, at Tamin's request) they rallied together in the guild's foyer. Sebastien and Venusaur were both stationed within the confines of that room as well, and both of them had prepared backpacks with flares in easy reach. Locke's face was one of confidence and anticipation. Tamin's face was a neutral expression with a slight smile for the purpose of hiding her true emotions behind a façade rather than show it for others to understand. Sebastien's face was one of intrigue in the sense of interest and happy to see new members of the guild be able to perform. Venusaur's face told a story of smugness, his eyes looked towards the new recruits and his lips begged the question "is this it?" wordlessly.

With low verbal communication, the four departed from the guildhouse to travel towards the cavern where their objective was situated.

It wasn't long into the walk where the natural elements began making their presence known to the old and new recruits on Espeon's guild alike. The cruel winter wind had come prematurely and blew its frigid breath on the traveling pokemon, seeming to not be stopped by their fur as it shook their bones as well. It was most effective on Venusaur's dermal tissue, but he merely grunted through it and kept moving; his backpack also covered more of the body then the others so that provided a hint of protection against the cold wind. Locke was able to ignore it by his developed cold resistance from spending far colder nights outside in the past. It stung the most on the other two, but they decided to not let that reach their voice and complain aloud. They continued to put one foot in front of the other on the compacted earth roads, a discussion among them inevitably began as the idea of them going that long without a word was an absurd notion to be sure.

"Are these temperatures normal for this area?" Tamin asked, while she put her arms together and kept her tail close.

"I think we're just going through a cold spell right now, it shouldn't be this low right now," the meowstic responded, "Oh well, it's not too terrible. Winter is coming soon, so it's best that you be prepared~"

"Yeah, glad I joined this guild at the time I did," Tamin whispered under her breath at a volume below what Sebastien could hear with her covered ears.

The minccino had begun to get worried that she had run away from her house at a poor time and would have to suffer through a harsh winter outdoors. It was a gnawing fear spawned from her decision that she couldn't take a life of abuse any longer and needed to slide away at the first opportunity that revealed itself to her. But the fears had been pitched out by her getting a warm shelter in the form of the guildhouse and a cozy abode to match.

As Locke saw Tamin speaking to Sebastien, he turned his head to Venusaur with mirrored intent.

"So, what do you like to do?" Locke asked Venusaur, starting with the simplest of simple in regards to the effectively infinite range of questions he could possibly bring up.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm sorry but I have standards with who I speak to," Vensauar said as he didn't even give the courtesy of turning his head towards the shinx and only barely looked at the smaller pokemon.

Locke was taken aback by this response that was as cold as the frigid winds. He shifted his gaze away from the larger pokemon and continued walking forward, though his eyes had become more squinted and focused from this interaction as he was not going to let such an incident to quickly fade from his memory.

They walked forward down the road, where they passed by a basinwood sign post that stood taller than all of them. They took a turn as the pathway forked, and communicated more afterwards.

"So, you said you were Rustin's sister, Sebastien?" Tamin asked.

"That's correct, we're siblings~" Sebastien, her outdoors voice being little different from her indoors voice.

"Are you two twins? If not, which of you is older?" she asked with a tone traced with curiosity.

"Rustin is eight months older than me but we're the same age in years right now," the female meowstic explained.

"How is Rustin? I haven't heard from him ever since he dropped us by the guildmaster office to be recruited," Tamin followed up, she didn't want to use too many words and draw out attention, but this information was something that she sought for, "What's your relationship with him?"

"Oh, I can understand that. He's a little over-serious if you ask me, he just seemed to not be able to take things jokingly," Sebastien said. "He is my brother though, so I can't be too abrasive with my words~

As for my relationship, it is quite funny actually. He's one of the best in the guild and certainly better than me; trying to make himself as respectable to Espeon as possible, but in doing so he's become like a pet for my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend? You're referring to Espeon?" Tamin said, tilting her head a smidge in confusion.

"Yep~" Sebastien said as her voice got even more flowery and a twinkle appeared in her eyes. The tone of pride and lust both being compressed tightly into that one word that was expressed, "Now to turn the question back into your court, might I ask about your relationship with Locke?"

"Just friends; nothing more. Don't forget that I first met him yesterday. We haven't had a lot of time to connect," Tamin answered, she tried to pass off the question quickly as she made mental notes in her head about the various characters. "But really, going back to you, you're the guildmaster's girlfriend?"

"We've been dating for half-a-year so far. He's quite exquisite~" the female meowstic began explaining as though she was daydreaming, "I've been through a few boys already, so I know a thing-or-two about relationships."

"What are you with Espeon for?" Locke interjected for he had overhead their talk.

"You know, the usual. His forked tail is a perfect match for my twin tails and just the perfect shade (I don't even think he uses dye). His fur is perfectly clean, his claws have sublime pedicure, his eyes bring you into another world entirely when you look into them, his silk scarf is always perfectly folded- he's just sexy in every way, you know?"

"Right…" the minccino said to Sebastien while she began to squint, "So do you love him for his body or his position? Because I think the other possibilities can be ruled out."

"What do you mean?" the meowstic asked as she moved her head to look at Tamin while her voice took the tone of being slightly offended.

"What I mean is that by what I've seen and heard so far, it sounds like you're either making a bid power or just seeking to have someone to lift your tails with," Tamin said, her voice getting colder as the wind became more forgiving.

"What?" Locke said in a confused voice, "I mean, I get the first part about what you said, but what does lifting your tails have to do with anything?"

"Oh, nothing," Tamin said as she began to regret saying as much as she did instead of being silent, "Just ignore that. Let's keep walking."

"Um, okay," Locke said, although he did not know what the act of lifting tails was supposed to mean.

Venusaur shot a smug smile at the shinx while he tried to not laugh.

They walked forward without stopping. While Locke was still left puzzled, he still understood some of what Sebastien was saying and what Tamin was implying. His memories of the time he worked side-by-side with Crystal when she was still a sneasel came to his mind; while such a brief experience of companionship was in his past it felt so eerily pure to him. The idea of someone using companionship for just a source of power and pleasure felt wrong to him, corrupting such a simple with that corruption spreading like oil being dropped into crystal clear water. The thoughts stayed in his mind as his four legs continued a steady stride. His mind- however primal- performed what philosophizing it could comprehend from his first impression of both Venusaur and Sebastien.

With more traveling across the plains, the sun in the sky shifted to show it was passing noon with shorter shadows casted across the lands. The hour hand on every clock in the local region clicked at one, and only a scarce few minutes later the party of four approached the cave mentioned on the quest paper.

It was a slight uphill walk before the proper cave entrance revealed itself; barreling downwards into the earth. The cave went eastward down, making it so that the sun wasn't behind them to shine its light down the daunting passageway. As a result, the cave had encroaching darkness that seemed to quickly get thicker without any illumination piercing it.

The four of them gathered at the entrance to gaze downwards into the dungeon before them.

"Well, I wondered how one could lose an heirloom in a dungeon, but I think I see now. If someone dropped an object at the entrance by accident then it would tumble down pretty far," Locke stated.

"That appears to be the case," Sebastien said, starting to act more professional now that they had arrived at the location.

"How many days ago was the mission request given to the guild?" Locke inquired.

"Two days, I believe," Sebastien answered. "Let's hope the object was durable enough to not be broken at this point."

"Ah. So given how deep this looks, do you think it would still be tumbling down all the way to the abyss?" Locke said, a smile forming on his face as he told his joke.

"Can you please shut up with your jokes?" Venusaur said to Locke condescendly.

"Hey! That's literally the first time you've heard me make a joke," Locke shot back.

"And I feel bad for everyone else who has had to h-"

"Venusaur! Please don't be trying to drive the new recruits off!" Sebastien interrupted.

The grass type only rolled his eyes as a response. He considered making a derogatory comment towards her, but decided it wasn't a good idea to punch up at someone close to the guildmaster he worked for.

In the middle of the bickering, Tamin focused herself on the gate to darkness that was in front of her. The black touched her mentally and caused some fear to course through her mind, but her limbs stayed still without shivering from cold or fear and her mind still thought of plans to make the best out of the bad situations her life seemed to love putting her in.

"So I can guess that we're supposed to use our flares to light this place up, but can everyone get down safely?" the minccino asked, "I'm good at climbing so I should be fine getting up and down, is everyone else alright?"

"I can jump pretty well and land on my paws, so don't worry," Locke responded.

"We're both experienced explorers, we'll be more than fine~" Sebastien answered, referring to both her and Venusaur.

"I'm very experienced as well," Locke retorted.

"I have no doubt you have some former experience, but Venusaur and I have been at this for years. We know the right techniques and I'll be happy with teaching you~" Sebastien said, trying to be polite.

"Years? I've practically been going through mystery dungeons my whole life! I've probably gone through a dozen or more dungeons then what you've explored! I can take on this whole place solo if I tried!"

"Says the unevolved," Venusaur interjected.

"Just because I'm younger than you don't mean I'm worse!" Locke said, his grammar skipping around, "I might be the best one here! You haven't seen what I can do with electricity yet! Ever seen someone arc their lightning through several targets? I freaking think not!"

"There's a difference between doing missions and just doing a run through a dungeon. The former requires proper policies and restrictions to please the client while the latter is just pillage and looting how you see fit."

"Can we not get into an argument?!" Tamin said, raising her voice at the others. She knew what it sounded like to have an argument started and wanted nothing more at that moment then to defuse it. Hearing pokemon shout at one another only served to remind her of her family, which sparked terrible memories to rise from the depths of her mind.

"Sorry," Locke apologized. His voice quickly snapped back down.

"Yeah, let's move on," Sebasien said as she looked back into the cave. "Here, I'll use my flare."

The female meowstic produced a flare that was held on the bottom of her backpack and used it to launch the upper part down the cave. The color of this flare was pink and left behind the expected contrail of smoke which illuminated the dungeon so the environment could be discerned by normal eyes.

"Okay, let's do this…"

The four carefully descended. Tamin was partially distracted by the argument making her remember family, which in turn just made her desire to fold some cloth as a method of getting her mind off of them. The way downwards was steeper than a staircase, but not to the point of making movement dangerous as they used the light from Sebastien's flare to avoid sharp points or areas where there wasn't much of a footing. As they went down further, different parts of Locke's body started to glow as his species' bioluminescence was activated. Minccino found the sight of his body glowing to be bizarre, but welcomed it in the dark environment.

A few wild pokemon came at them when they traveled down; announcing their presence with screeches that served as warnings instead of intimidation. Sebastien was able to fend off most of them before their teeth could come anywhere close to the guild pokemon. Only the stark few dark types that became stranglers which got closer, but Locke and Venusaur were more than capable of disposing of those. Tamin lacked any attack which was ranged or had reach which caused her to be useless against pokemon while on the downward path, but she didn't care for combat anyways.

After a minute of traveling while their bubble of illumination moved, they reached a point where the cavern flattened out and contained puddles of rainwater surrounded by fungus. The cave did not go deeper, but it did bend forward to reveal a thinner cavern path deeper in.

"Here we are; at the bottom," Locke said as he stepped down to get all four of his paws on the same horizontal level.

"Brilliant observation, clearly you're the only one who could have noticed such an obvious detail," Venusaur said.

"Venusaur, I swear to Arceus, I will report you if you try to harass them out of the guild. They're members now, deal with it," Sebastien said, there being less patience to be found in her voice then what she had as they were walking to the dungeon.

"What was the heirloom we were supposed to locate again?" Tamin asked quickly, trying to intercept another argument from starting.

"I think it was a metal seafaring badge," Locke responded, quickly recalling what the mission description was.

"Doesn't sound like something that would be destroyed by the fall down or the rainwater. Let's search around them," Tamin responded.

The four split apart to search every crevice of the cavern's floor. Every slit between rocks, hole in the ground, inside of the gathered rainwater, and even below every rock. Tamin brushed up some of the dust with her tail as they went through the various natural structures that made the room feel like it was taken out of a museum of dungeoneering. The more they scoured the area, the thinner the unchecked corners became, and the more it became apparent that the object of their search was not present within that space.

"It doesn't seem to be here," Locke commented.

"Looks like the pokemon inside took it somewhere else. Or we were entirely wrong about it being dropped down from the entrance. Either way, the only option is to head deeper inside," Sebastien said.

"Well we shouldn't have expected to get through this without some combat anyways. C'mon, let's rough some dungeon pokemon up and find that medal," Locke said, he would have raised his voice into a motivating shout but he knew the acoustics the dungeon offered would have caused it to echo down the natural pathways and attracted more pokemon to their position.

"They typically don't break objects sporadically or take items across the entire dungeon. Item recovery missions don't have awful failure rates, so we should be fine~" Sebastien said, "Come now, let's have some fun."

The female meowstic led the way into the tunnel while holding the still glowing flare so its illumination could pierce the blanket of darkness. Tamin was the closest by and silently took a step behind, trying to be passive. Locke jumped up behind her while the massive Venusaur was at the back.

Without even the luminous smoke, what was left of Sebastien's flare and Locke's body were the only sources of light left for the teams. But as most of the members had some degree of night vision in their eyes, the explorers were equipped for the task at hand nonetheless. The phosphorescence revealed the cavern path closing in like a funnel; getting thinner with every step until it was compressed to a size only barely large enough to account for Venusaur's width and would easily trigger claustrophobia to those that had it. The four moved forward while staying in the single file line, keeping enough distance to avoid touching each other's tails but not a meter more. In the constrained walk, they all remained silent as Tamin always sought to avoid attention, Locke and Sebastien both understood that creating unnecessary noise was a bad idea, and Venusaur simply didn't want to talk.

While she did not have claustrophobia, the expedition was still unnerving to the poor minccino. The mix of stone, void, and echoing footsteps was indescribably different from the cozy guildhouse or the mansion in the middle of dense woods that she used to call home. The primal fear of darkness wormed its way into her mind. Her efforts were put into walking forward while ensuring her fear didn't translate into her body language- a skill she had developed in her younger years before she ran away.

Eventually they reached a point where the funnelled cave opened up again to a larger area. The drops of water from stalactites were heard along with the chattering of cave pokemon within. Sebastien covered the flare up to cloak the light it made while the team ducked down.

"We'll have to be a bit careful, it seems there's a lot of pokemon here," the meowstic whispered very quietly to the others there.

"I know we're supposed to ration them carefully, but I think now's the time to pop another flare," Tamin suggested, speaking in faint whispers as well. "Maybe we could use the light to blind them for a bit since their eyes are used to the darkness."

"I think I've got a better idea," Locke replied, moving his neck around and forcing his body to glow less as he spoke.

"What is it?" Sebastien asked as she turned to the shinx.

"I'm going to sneak into there and get a stealth takedown on one of 'em. You guys can follow my lead and charge once I've gotten the surprise," Locke explained.

"That would put you in a dangerous position, the team should be sticking together so a single one of us can't get completely flanked," the meowstic responded, having a leaderly voice despite being forced to whisper and she previously had her mind caught up in lewd subjects.

Completely disregarding Sebastien's words, Locke inhaled a deep breath through his nose and fully deactivated any bioluminescence on his body. He then walked forward with extremely light steps to go around Tamin and Sebastien.

The other three stayed back while the shinx walked forward on his own accord; his paws with retracted claws made for perfectly muffled steps that didn't echo across the stone infrastructure. He hugged the walls while walking behind rocks and stalagmites alike as he moved forward, sensing the locations of the dungeon pokemon with his nose and ears more than his sight as he relied purely on his instincts to take a safe path through the uneven terrain.

Tamin was too unnerved to put herself in danger to take any action to stop Locke's actions, while Venusaur was indifferent. Sebastien was not a fan of Locke suddenly going off on himself and did her best to keep track of his location. Telepathy was a common ability for psychic types, so she began tp focus her psychic energy to make an attempt to silently contact him.

As the shinx went forward- guided purely by his instincts- he was able to sense a close by golbat that hadn't noticed him yet and appeared to be alone. Locke repositioned himself to point his body towards it while shifting into a pouncing stance. The lion's claws emerged from their natural sheathes and his star tail flicked left and right a few times. He felt his breath running short as he was pushing thirty seconds without breathing at that moment.

Then suddenly- completely breaking the pattern of quiet and meticulous movements the team had been executing- Locke leaped forward onto the golbat with daring speed. He landed on top of it with the momentum forcing the off-guard pokemon onto the ground as Locke began tearing viciously with his claws and breathing once again. The golbat cried out in pain and flailed to get Locke off, but that served to do nothing to deter the sudden assault. Electricity escaped from the lion's body to bolster the power of the attacks, but also created light that made his exact location visible to dungeon pokemon and guild members alike.

With the electric illumination serving as a summoning sigil, Tamin, Sebastien, and Venusaur all ran out towards the shinx as the dungeon pokemon went for him as well. Before they could reach him, Locke finished his assault on the golbat as it went on the ground. The shinx with adrenaline-filled speed snapped around and released a thunderbolt at one of the pursuing enemies. His accuracy was unmatched despite the foreboding darkness all around. Venusaur immediately tried to take control of the battlefield and fought multiple pokemon with his moves and Tamin just tried to follow the light Sebastien carried around.

One charged towards Sebastien with her light, which caused Tamin to jump back more than the meowstic herself. Even though Sebastien was quick to retaliate and was as successful as she was swift, the accumulating panic got to the minccino's head as she got the deep feeling that she wouldn't be able to do anything in the black chaos.

Seeking to create light to make the battle more comprehensible, Tamin stood up and quickly reached for the flare she had. She put it in front of her and gripped it with both paws, but before she could activate the item a flying pokemon dove in and slashed at her with its primal claws aggressively. The impromptu attack made the minccino stutter back and drop the flare, with her teeth clenching on her lower lip to better withstand the pain. Despite the surprise, Tamin knew how to deal with pain enough to not go down instantly. A flash of insight came to mind as Tamin remembered how she had fought the pansage in her training test in regards to the strategy of grabbing it to slam it against the wall and ceiling. Seeking to repeat what had worked before, the minccino reclaimed a step back forward and blindly made a grab attack into the darkness where the attack had come. The move connected with her feeling fur come between her paws, so she clenched down. However, before she could invoke the strength to bring it to the cavern floor, she felt talons gripple onto her back. In a strange reversal, the enshadowed pokemon made a powerful movement with its wings pulling itself into the air above along with the minccino. No longer having the ground beneath her feet amplified Tamin's panic and made her begin to flail around to struggle out of the grip. It became void in all directions for Tamin, just an endless blackness with no solids to cling to. A scream begged to escape from her lungs while she clenched her paw up and pulled it back with the intent to pound at the flying pokemon.

Time didn't bide her well for yet another occasion, as before she could deliver the attack, the flying pokemon put its feet onto Tamin's chest then performed a move of letting go of its grip and kicking her down at the same time. She plummeted quickly and slammed against the stone floor back first. The cruel hardness delivered a surging pain from her torso outwards.

The pain created another flash of insight as Tamin remembered some of her worst moments deeper in the past. While the attack would be overpowering to the typical civilized pokemon, the minccino's body had long adapted to a little pain and injury. She still had some fight left in her and rushed to get back up on her feet. On the way up, Tamin gazed upwards to see a thunderbolt coming overhead and hitting the now-revealed noivern directly in the head to knock it away and out.

"Tamin! Are ya okay?!" Locke called out as he ran towards the minccino, stepping carefully to avoid getting his paws stuck in any small holes or getting cut on a sharp rock. While his soft paws traversed through the open cavern, the sound of bullet seeds pummeling the remaining cave pokemon echoed as a way to audibly signal the end of the skirmish.

"Yeah… don't worry," the minccino responded as she pulled herself off of the ground. Despite the pain on her back, she got back up and into a normal posture. The damage was barely noticeable on her.

"Do you need an oran?" Locke said, his words stopping before it sounded like the sentence should have.

"I have my own to use… is the fight over?" Tamin said as she was close enough to Locke to make out his details and colors.

"The room's all nice and secured~" Sebastien said, her voice returning to normal, aside from the differences caused by the cavern's acoustics.

"Good," Locke declared blankly, "let's keep searching for that metal."

"Mhm. By the way, give us more of a warning when you're going to break from the group like that," Tamin said, lightly scolding the lion but not raising her voice on him.

"Nah, it's fine," Locke replied. "I can handle dungeons solo, as I've said. I'm best when I do things by my own game. You guys will just have to keep up."

"Hmm…" Tamin said as a non-response.

The minccino retrieved the flare that was knocked out of her paws earlier and the team searched the now-secured section of the subterranean system. After several minutes passed, many small sections were checked, and many bodies were poked to ensure they did not make a second wind, no such seafarer's badge was found in that room either. When Tamin voiced her concerns that the task seemed impossible, some dungeoneering knowledge was exchanged to ease her worries. It was explained that there were very few recorded examples of dungeon pokemon burying objects and the success rate of item retrieval missions was high, as the pokemon often feel the object is safe merely by being in the dungeon without needing additional hiding. This explanation failed to entirely vanquish Tamin's concerns, but it did give her what she needed to move on.

Onward from that area, they went from choke point pathway to choke point pathway, open room to open room, and fight to fight. Each area was searched over for the illusive badge, but to no avail. While the place did provide for fascinating sights of stalagmite and stalactite formations, such natural displays could not be enjoyed when they could only get a look at them by shining their meager light sources over them and were on edge from the combat.

Their resources of recovery items and illumination gradually dwindled down as their accumulated time in the caves pushed onto an hour. But eventually- just as the explorers' patience was being tested- they reached an area that opened up into a room that was the largest they had seen in the cavern thus far. At the end of it was a pile of loose objects that reflected some of their light back at them. The glisten made it obvious to those with dungeoneering knowledge that they were looking at a pile of small metallic objects.

"Looks like we've just found the horde," Locke said, speaking in whispers once more.

"Some pokemon has surely been busy gathering a collection," Sebastien commented. "I suppose when you've lived in a cave your whole life then you haven't had anyone to tell you that all that glitters isn't golden. Anything shiny must look great in a world of dust and stone."

"Whatever. Let's find that badge in the stockpile and loot whatever else we can so we can finally end this mission." Venusaur said, his voice not whispering like the others were and had a hint of complaining in his tone

"Shush- whatever the collector is, it's probably still here. Be quiet," Sebastien swiftly responded.

"Here's what we do: we light off a flare towards the stash to make a path-a-light so we won't fight in darkness if and when it attacks us," Locke said.

"Well-"

Before Sebastien could interject with any words, Locke got his flare out to point it forwards and activated it. The expected happened with the yellow smoke and tinted light getting fired forward. The four stood back as they watched the cavern be illuminated; the many dungeoneering examples were finally well visible without becoming so bright that it hurt the guild pokemon's pupils that were used to the blackness.

The four walked forward on the artificial path. Locke once again retracted his claws for a silent stride across the stone, but him being silent meant little when Venusaur's large feet made footsteps that echoed. All of their gazes were looking to the side while they walked forward to look out for enemies surrounding them. Their guard was kept on maximum for any ambush, but that made Tamin's stress amplify all that more. As the minccino's eyes darted around fervorously, a massive, grueling sound of a pokemon nearby was heard by the team.

"It's waking up," Locke told the group.

"Uh, what is 'it', exactly?" Tamin, her voice beginning to get distressed.

"Sounds like an onyx to me," Sebastien said. "Everyone, get ready."

"Brilliant commentary, no one else could have identified that," Venusaur snickered.

"Venusaur, I swear to Arceus this isn't the time for your-"

The sound of rocks being shuffled around loudly sounded off in the cavern as movement was heard. The onyx was charging towards them and all four shifted to look at the direction of the sound. It first came straight towards the bioluminous shinx as he stood out the most. Locke's eyes focused in the direction it was coming in on, and kept track of its location. When the distance between them decreased to only a few meters, Locke swiftly jumped to dodge out of the way and landed himself on the onyx's left side. Only a few split seconds apart, Tamin's body had frozen up as she had no idea how to react to such a large beast being aggressive towards her. In the moment of her muscles locking up, the onyx's tail end sweeped to the side and hit against the minccino's body. The attack fully connected and knocked her back to send her flying across the room as the damage surged through her.

She was airborne for two seconds before hitting against the hard stone walls. The toughness of the walls was a second bludgeon to her body that hurt her back. While the minccino could handle some pain, damage of this extent was far more than just psychological. Tamin felt a previous wound get aggravated which caused blood to drain from it again. She tried to hang onto consciousness desperately, but the stars spinning around her, the excruciating pain of bone damage, and the warm blood dripping out of her made that task inordinately difficult. Her limbs ceased their struggle to try to get back up, her eyelids closed, and her senses failed her as the minccino fainted against the cave wall.

The battle transformed into a chaotic mess as it became three versus one. With the adrenaline moving through him, Locke's eyes tinted into a shade of red and his instincts took over. His charm slipped away as only basic things remained when it tried to discern what the present threats were. The shinx's mind remembered that the onyx attacked him, he remembered how Venusaur refused to talk to him and used condescending words against him, and he remembered the philosophies he heard Sebastien using that he found abhorrent. In all three cases, his primal and instinct-driven mind found something to disagree on. At such a state, he couldn't easily differentiate between different shades of agreeing or disagreeing; only able to differentiate from three groups of friends, enemies and those neutral. Even then, his ability to discern between those groups was blurred.

Venusaur used his vines to grapple the onyx and attempt to hold it back. While his vines lacked the strength to completely restrain the beast as they were slim compared to it, it did forcefully slow it down so it could not make a full berserk rampage around the area. Psychic blasts and crackling electricity barraged down on the stone body to wear it down.

It began to senselessly flail around the lingering smoke contrail to free itself from Venusaur's restrictions, but the sporadic movements made the shadowy fight all the more chaotic. Sebastien saw a part of it flailing close to her so she made a swift jump backwards into the darker sections of the battlefield. But just as she got onto her two feet again, she felt a series of thin, sharp objects slash through the back of her scarf and into her neck's nape. The meowstic quickly turned around to see it was Locke behind her that had his claws still dripping with her blood. In the absolute disarray, shadows blurred together as the red-eyed, instinct-driven shinx did not fully understand who he was striking at.

Psychic types were not the best at quick thinking despite their ocean of intelligence. Before she could think of how to deal with the sudden challenge that the shinx now posed, Venusaur managed to unleash a solar beam at the onyx assaulting them. While it was significantly weakened by the lack of natural light or exposure to the sky, the attack was still sufficient to deal the remaining damage necessary to make the creaute fall. The stone serpent fainted- it collapsed onto the ground with its grey body still being revealed by the yellow tinted flare light. The fight was over.

Locke took a few more heavy breaths as he looked at the various pokemon around the area. But as he saw them all stop, his breaths began to call back to a normal rhythm with his heart slowing down.

"What was that about!" Sebastien said to Locke, her voice getting louder than he had ever heard it.

"W-wha?" Locke stuttered as he continued shifting back to a normal state.

The meowstic kneeled down to pick up the scarf that fell off of her when the back of it was torn by the shinx's claws. She handled the scarf carefully as though it was a fragile life.

"Do you… remember what happened?" she asked, confused by Locke's behavior.

"Umm. Y-yea. I attacked you," Locke said remorsefully, "I-I was just caught up in the- um- and- uh… I'm sorry. I don't know, I was just trying to handle all of my ene-..." Locke could tell that his words were failing him so he abruptly stopped himself.

The room was in silence for a few seconds. For once in the mission there was more that could be discerned visually than there could be audibly. In the dreadful silence, they realized they had a lot to do, so they split up again.

Tamin's body was picked up and a reviver seed was put into her mouth to reconstitute her. When she was returned to consciousness, everything that happened when she was out was explained. The minccino was fed an oran berry for her bones and Locke helped her walk until she could walk off the injuries to get back to normal.

The glimmering stash was searched and the heirloom was successfully located. Sebastien put it in her backpack while Venusaur dug piles of the other miscellaneous items into his bags. His face had a smile of avarice as he imagined all the profit he could make by pawning off the objects.

They backtracked through the dungeon while using what flares they had left. Tamin's stress turned into feelings of inadequacy, her mind screamed at her that she was a failure if she was knocked unconscious in the fight without being able to fight back. Even if no one else there was demeaning her, her mind did so automatically. Sebastien found herself taking the role of the leader more than ever, with her eyes darting between Tamin to ensure her condition stayed okay, Locke to ensure he didn't make another impromptu attack and Venusaur to ensure he did not try to bully them. Moreover, Sebastien continued to treat the scarf delicately by putting in a section of her backpack that didn't have any sharp objects inside of it. Even though the object of their search was obtained successfully, the results of the onyx fight made the exhibition feel like a failure to an extent.

Without getting lost they returned to the dungeon's entrance and saw natural light's splendor once more. It took far longer to climb out then it did to descend back down, but after many jumps and breaks to regain stamina they found their way onto the plains of the surface again. One more glance was taken down the shaft to reflect on the events that had just transpired.

"Dang, I guess I'm a minute late to say 'it's all uphill from here'," Locke commented.

"Both the terms 'It's an uphill battle' and 'things are going downhill' have negative connotations to them," Tamin responded while her gaze was still drawn to the abyss they had just arisen from. "Either way you're saying that you're in a bad situation when using one of those 'hill' expressions."

"Wait, so you're saying it's we're always in an appropriate time to say that?" Locke hastily replied.

"Wait- what?! No! Absolutely no!" Tamin said, now turning her head to the shinx.

"Great to know I'm not too late to say that then!"

"...I really hate your jokes," Tamin said.

"You seem to hate them just as much as I love telling them then seeing your reaction!"

"We should be getting back to the guildhouse as soon as we can," Sebastien said.

"Why so serious?" Locke asked the meowstic, noting how her voice tone had been much different then what it was when they were last outside.

"There's just something that I want to get back to talk about…" she said, her voice staying cold.

"Who?" Tamin inquired as they started to turn away from the cave to make the trek to return.

"Espeon," the meowstic answered.

"Oh, so you're just wanting to have some chity-chat with your boyfriend?" Locke said.

"What? No. Well I am talking with my boyfriend, but not about that sort of subject," Sebastien tried to explain. "I'm going to speak to him as a member of the guild, with his authority and all. Not lovey-dovey talk."

"Oh, respecting authority? The authority of the one with 'eyes bring you into another world entirely when you look into them', whose 'claws have sublime pedicure', and who you said 'His forked tail is a perfect match for my twin tails and just the perfect shade' about?" Locke teased.

"N-no, none of that. Well yes, but-"

Sebastien's talking was interrupted by the sound of Venusaur giving a hearty laugh out loud. For the first time since he had met them, Venusaur found an aspect of the new recruits that made him enjoy their presence. The bipedal cat only turned her head back forward while she closed her eyes and bit her tongue to avoid herself from producing any more words that could be used against her.

The four of them made their journey back to the guildhouse, making their way through the plain roads in the opposite way. The bitter winds had died down making it a far more merciful trek, however a still coldness kept its presence.

After the trip, they reached the grounds of the guild once again. They met with a wartortle who introduced himself as the mission's client and happily gave them the reward money in exchange for the seafaring badge.

Once the guild's share was taken, the remaining reward money was divided evenly with the four guildmembers in four small cloth sacks. Each of them held the bags in front of them.

"Nice! First profit at this place!" Locke said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, it is quite nice," Tamin said as she took a single one of the coins out to inspect it and twirl it between her paw fingers. Though her voice was restrained to be calm about it, internally she was ecstatic. The prospect of having money to herself that she could spend however she saw fit was a first to her, and in her palms felt like an extraordinary amount of power. She knew she had to be wise with it and could not spend it recklessly on her impulses, but it was still entertaining to delight the fantasies in her head.

"Yeah. It is nice… I'll need to excuse myself," Sebastien said as her mind was clearly elsewhere. After she had spoke, she stepped away from them to head to the guildmaster office.

"Heh, that's really pathetic if you consider that to be a 'nice' amount of money," Venusaur taunted.

"Hey, matter of perspective," Locke hastily responded.

"Yeah. The perspective only taken up by the lowly."

Locke got an angered look: his mouth showing teeth as his tail raised up. His claws extended and small amounts of electricity flowed through him. He took a first step towards Venusaur and a second. But before he could take a third step, Tamin placed her paw carefully. The shinx immediately shifted his look to the minccino to see the calm, if not slightly concerned expression on her face. The sight of her face as well as the soft fur being pressed on him made him start to calm down. His tail lowered as fast as it came up, with the minccino's gesture being a simple callback to reality to make him realize what he was in the process of doing. No sounds happened in this exchange, though Venusaur did almost let out a laugh at seeing Locke be provoked by his words.

As Locke, Tamin, and Venusaur were still gathered in the foyer, Sebastien had gotten across the building to arrive at the guildmaster office. She raised her paw and knocked on the wooden door.

"Ah, yes?! Who is it?" Espeon's voice rang from inside.

"Sebastien," she said in a down voice while one paw was in her bags.

"Oh! Come inside then, I haven't locked it." Espeon said, taking notice of how the meowstic didn't sound like how she normally did.

Heeding by his command, Sebastien opened the mahogany gate and stepped inside. The office was how it always looked, though Espeon had been alone in it without Niot beside him. Espeon himself was behind his desk. He had been working on some papers with a pen in hand, but put it down so he could raise his head and get a better look at Sebastien.

"Back from your mission? Did everything go well?" Espeon said, aware that something was wrong by the meowstic's tone and body language, thus he tried to identify the complication.

"To an extent. The client is satisfied and we got the reward."

"Then what's the problem? Wait, where's your scarf?"

Sebastien got up to the desk, opened up her backpack and took out the scarf from it. She set it down in front of Espeon, allowing it to be carefully examined with its damage and small amounts of blood on it. Espeon's reaction was hasty as he sat himself up and got his paws under the appearel to hold it.

"I'm sorry. I know you told me to be careful with that particular scarf and I promised it would be fine, but I guess that's not what happened…"

"It's… It's okay. I'll have Niot take over for a bit and try to get this restored the best I can…" Espeon said while inspecting the damage further, "Are the newcomers fine?"

"The minccino took some damage but she was successfully healed, they're both fine," the meowstic said, beginning to shift into a more comfortable posture as she knew she would be there for longer. "But for the shinx, there's something important about him. He was the one that slashed at the scarf."

"What?" he said as he turned his head back to Sebastien.

"We got into a fight with an onyx, and after I dodged an attack from it I felt claws slashing at my nape. I turned around and saw it was him who did it," Sebastien told, "He was just… there. The fight was wrapped up shortly after he seemed to regain his senses once I yelled at him."

"He attacked you?" Espeon tilted his head to the side in confusion.

"Yes. Practically had murder in his eyes as well."

"Hmm…" he pondered. He fully believed Sebastien as they had a relationship, but was trying to figure out what could have happened from Locke's point of view. "I read the description of the quest you went on, and noticed it was in a cave. Is it possible that he simply couldn't see what was going on and this was a case of accidental friendly-fire?"

"That might have been part of it, but that doesn't add up as the full-story. We used a flare to light the area up, I was dodging away from the enemy, he seemed to aim for my neck, and shinx should have night vision."

"His eyes could just be poor. We could get him an eye test and possibly a glasses prescription," Espeon proposed, still throwing out ideas in his defense.

"I didn't see anything else that would imply that. I don't know what was going around, but at that moment he seemed as wild as the dungeon pokemon and the attack felt decisive."

"Wow. I'm going to have to write up an incident report or something on that. Pretty serious if he hurt you, and broke the scarf in the process," Espeon's head turned back to the scarf.

"If you need help restoring that, tell me. I know you told me that was important to you."

"It's not just important, it's irreplaceable!" Espeon corrected, "Whimsicott made this with his own cotton when he just founded the guild. It's a remnant of him and there's not many of these scarves left."

"I understand. I'm terribly sorry this happened," Sebastien said, being sympathetic.

The guildmaster just let out a heavy sigh as he kept holding the scarf.

"It's not your fault. Just grab a normal cloth scarf for right now, I'll do what I can," Espeon said. "I'll make sure my sister, Niot, and Sylveon hear about what happened with Locke. I don't want to do anything major immediately, but we'll make a note about this."

"Understandable," the meowstic said as she began to head over to the bin of unused scarves, "Tell me when you're done, honey. I would like to go on one more date before it starts snowing, so I'd like to discuss ideas and dates when you become available~"

"That would be lovely," Espeon replied, his voice suddenly sounded a bit less stressed.

During the time in which Sebastien was talking with Espeon, Locke and Tamin had been grouped together still. They walked across the guildhouse at Tamin's lead to gain a distance between them and Venusaur. While the shinx wasn't quite able to pick up on the social cues, Tamin was familiar enough with how pokemon who degraded on others behaved that she could figure out that Venusaur was planning on degrading and bullying them when Sebastien was absent. She noticed the small nuances that told her what the grass type pokemon's true intentions were, so she got them both out of there.

They ended up settling down in one of the guildhouse's outer hallways, where they pulled out their money bags again to talk about them.

"Even if it's not a lot, I am appreciative of what we have now," Tamin said as she held the coins between her paw fingers again.

"Yeah! Wanna go to a place to celebration?" Locke asked, his grammar being flawed as always.

"I'm not sure that's the greatest of ideas to have," Tamin responded, "I want to build up a reasonable supply of money before I spend any. I don't know what I'll need to be getting yet so having a safety net to fall upon would be wise."

"Eh, makes sense. But believe me, you be safe. We're fed here and sheltered."

"I know, but that doesn't mean I can't have concerns. I just think-"

"Did I hear 'celebration'!" another voice exclaimed as it approached the shinx and minccino.

The two immediately rotated their heads in the direction of the voice, seeing a female emolga coming their way.

"Oh… Hey Olive," Locke said, sounding tired.

"Lovely to see my little shinx back safe and sound!" Olivia followed up.

"You two know each other?" Tamin inquired. She had remembered seeing the emolga when she was getting introduced to the guild by Espeon, but didn't see how she and Locke had interacted earlier that day so knowledge of some past between the two was alien to her.

"We very much know each other!" the emolga reassured with twinkling eyes.

"We had a run-in earlier today," Locke told Tamin.

"Mhm!" Olivia said, unphased by Locke's non-sugar coated wording, "And when that happened, you told me 'we could do something together later today'. It is later today now."

"Wait, did I say that?" the shinx said as he delved into his memory to recall what exact words he had used in their last meeting.

"You very much diiiiiiiiddd~" the emolga said like she was beginning a song. "And if you're going off on a celebration, then it sure sounds like the perfect time for me to come along."

"Oh shoot," the shinx said reactively.

"Words are fickle, you're much more likely to hurt yourself with them then others," Tamin said to Locke, but kept her eyes on Olivia to keep track of what she was up to.

"C'mon, it's perfect for us! I know you're still new to this town, but I know it like the back of my paw. I can find us a great restaurant to go to for supper," Olivia proposed.

"Okay, fine. I'll bite," Locke finally accepted.

"WONDERFUL!" Olivia exclaimed while being overjoyed, her voice loud enough that it could likely be heard from the other side of the building, "I'll get myself ready! Just some fur brushes and gel and I'll be good to go! We can check out a few joints around town so you can pick out your favorite, I'll pay for it! Oh, do you want me to groom you as well? I can do that, I have all the right products for electric type fur!"

"...I'll come along as well," Tamin said once her large ears had recovered from the loud noises which arose from the emolga's mouth.

"Oh?" Olivia said, taken aback and with a sudden drop in her volume.

"I will join you two. I can pay for my own meal if you don't want to split your money between all three of us," Tamin exclaimed as she kept her voice calm. Though spending any longer with the emolga felt like a terrible time with her, she didn't want to abandon her most reliable friend to have to be with her alone.

"Oh. Heheheh, that's alright," Olivia said as she began to go over to the minccino. She then brought her mouth to her ear and whispered, "Don't even think about trying to mess this up. This is about me and Locky."

Tamin only stepped back to reclaim her personal space as she remained silent.

"Wait!" the shinx said.

"What?" Olivia asked.

"If Tamin's coming along, then can I have Crystal the weavile join us as well?"

"Hhmp. Fine," Olivia said, sounding frustrated at her plans coming apart.

"Great!" Locke sounded enthusiastic once again.

The emolga took a heavy breath in, closed her eyes, and blew it out. She reminded herself of the good times she had in mind, and a smile appeared on her face once again.

"Alrighty! Let's leave in thirty minutes. I'll see you then, Locky!"

"Cya…" the shinx said as Tamin remained silent.

The three all scattered apart from one another. Olivia went to her room to groom herself, Locke went to find Crystal, and Tamin went to drop off things that were on her. She put the backpack and unused supplies back to where she found them originally. An exception to this was that she decided to continue carrying the money pouch for the dual purpose of preventing thievery and because she knew she would be using it soon.

While the three were scattered around the guildhouse, a different gathering was transpired on the second floor of the guildhouse.

Sylveon waited at the handguards indoors, looking downwards into the guild's mess hall for how others were behaving like a security guard watching cameras. His eyes were focused on spotting any potential transgression within his range of view, but his focus was halted when he heard a voice calling out to him from the side.

"Sylveon? Do you have a minute?" Sebastien inquired while approaching the eeveelution.

"Hmm? Yes, I can spare a minute," he replied.

"Good. There is something I need to speak with you on."

"Alright. But I think I know what this is about already."

"Did Espeon tell you about what Locke did?" Sebastien asked.

"Yes. He slashed at you and also broke the cotton scarf Espeon gave you," he said, straightforward, "Are you alright?"

"I am fine. Oran berries had no issue with healing me. I just came to warn you, as I think you should keep a watch for him, he might get violent in the future if he got violent with me."

"Be assured, I am taking tabs on him. But I must ask, you are sure that he knew what he was doing and this was no mere accidental friendly fire, correct?"

"Yes. In fact, I specifically asked him afterwards what happened, and he admitted to it. Apologized as well- mind you- but he did know."

"Understood. It's a strange case indeed, and I haven't known him long enough to call what's going on in his head," Sylveon admitted, "Though this does line up with him hurting Hunter this morning."

"Really? He did that?"

"Yes. He seemed to have been provoked by Hunter's usual tomfoolery and his attack seemed to have the purpose of sending a message instead of intent to kill (though he went a tad too far) but he did indeed attack Hunter purposefully. I let him off the hook at the time, but I'm not sure that was the best call in hindsight."

"This shinx certainly gets weirder the more we hear about him…"

"I'm sorry, but may I intrude on this conversation?" a feminine voice behind them asked. "I have overheard what you were saying and I think I can add to this."

Sebastien and Sylveon turned to check who it was and they saw a mawile standing there in a formal posture.

"Ah, Mawile, you can come in."

"Thank you," Mawile said as she came up, "I have been briefed on what has occured as well, and have attempted to do some psychoanalysis from the little we know."

"Go on," Sebastien spoke in curiosity as they all gathered at the handrails.

"These do not appear to be isolated incidents. Back when they were first found, Armin, Rustin and Max have reported him having incredible ferocity as they first found him. They detailed him having red eyes that made him look as primal as the dungeon pokemon. Then while he was being rescued, he apparently fired a thunderbolt at Max. All three of them have reported this happening."

"So we have three confirmed incidents of him attempting to harm a guild member?" Sylveon asked.

"Affirmative."

"Given we've only known him for two days, that is a horrific rate. Much worse than what even Hunter and Yuki have done…" Sylveon spoke to himself.

"Yes, but do you know why he's doing this?" Sebastien inquired.

"I can't make a guaranteed guess at that as we really haven't known him for long, but I will start trying to make a psychological profile on him. From my current theories, I speculate that these incidents are created from intense instincts when brought to a fight-or-flight situation. I have spoken with Crystal (who has been with Locke in the past) on this matter, and this has further corroborated this story," Mawile began explaining. "These instincts seemingly developed from his alleged years of being in mystery dungeons alone. When one is alone in a mystery dungeon with no one else there helping you; things like laying down in a fight to brace the pain, getting restrained, and not fighting at your fullest in a losing fight is a death sentence. Death could very well meet you right then and there.

I believe he was conditioned into a habit where he will always fight to the death. Being in a rage blinds one to certain stimuli, and he could have very well mastered this to the point of disregarding things such as his pain or the fact that he is outnumbered so those will not debilitate him. But as he is used to being in solitude, his rages seem to also make him blind to what is an ally and what is an enemy when he reaches his most ferocious state. Considering the life threatening environments posed in mystery dungeons, perhaps we should be surprised that he is not worse than this?"

"He only started to be like that when Tamin was knocked unconscious and he dodged a powerful attack, so I guess that lines up with what I witnessed," Sebastien said as the three of them were side-by-side on the hand railings.

"Right.

In one way, it's enduring. He will never just give up and will do his absolute best he can do until it becomes biologically impossible for him to move anymore. Useful virtues to have in a business like this.

But in another way, he is perhaps more wild than most of the pokemon we come across. Disregarding everything about him and only giving himself to the skirmish. And as you saw back there, he can hurt the companions he is not used to having."

"Well, do you have any suggestions?" Sylveon inquired.

"That is a puzzle I'm still working at solving, and I'm still going to need to work on a psychological profile on him. For what I can say right now: It's like an insanity in and of the fact that when it takes control, it is completely normal from your perspective. Even when looking back it can be hard to see the shift in yourself.

If that makes any sense. Apologies if I can't really think of any good analogies for this."

"If it's anything like your theory says it is then it sounds quite… horrifying, really," Sebastien expressed, looking away while she contemplated all of this in her mind.

"You didn't really answer my question." Sylveon stated, "You have just been describing what it is this whole time, but do you have any suggestions on what to do about it?"

"Simple. The Locke that's in the guild right now and the Locke that attacked Sebastian aren't two different people, so don't treat them as different people.

It's the same Locke as the one that dove into the back of Sebastien's neck, and so he is the one that needs some restraint so it doesn't happen again."

After this, Sylveon spent a few moments just looking forward and downward, thinking to himself and what Mawile was suggesting.

"I'll speak to Espeon about this," he raised his head stating, "Doubt he'll want anything to be done about it now. But we should be able to get the stuff so if things escalate and we do need to do something, we'll have the equipment ready."

Sebastian and Mawile nodded while Sylveon walked off. All three still had the shinx's actions on their mind.

**End of chapter 6.**


	7. Dine Out

Thirty minutes. That was the amount of time Olivia said they had before they left. It was only a slim amount of time to be at the guildhouse, so each of them tried their best to spend it wisely.

Locke went to the door to the weavile Crystal's chamber to get her up. It was early for the nocturnal pokemon to be getting up from slumber, but when briefed on the situation by Locke, she was welcomed into joining them. The shinx didn't do much with his time other than ensuring the weavile was prepared and exchanged some small talk with her. Tamin had gone the route of grooming herself within the confines of her room. She lacked the resources to set up a dust bath for herself, so she manually brushed and combed her fur to remove any dirt, drops of blood, or whatever else that had accumulated on her body from her foray into the underground. For what time she had remaining, Tamin resumed her personal ritual of perfectly folding cloth to relieve her mind of the gnawing feeling that it should be done. Olivia's preparation plans were similar to that of Tamin, but she was more focused and hasty with her self-allotted time. She quickly went to work with brushing and shampooing her fur, getting her goggles and bags polished, and using a mint to freshen her breath. Her paws blitzed around as she tried to accomplish as many preparation tasks as possible in maximized multitasking. They all operated at the same time, though it was the emolga who ultimately finished first.

Olivia rushed out of her room once she was done. She didn't even bother taking the stairs as she climbed over the second floor hand railing then glided down down to the foyer room. At that point she sat herself down and waited patiently.

"Hopefully they will be here on time. If they are just one minute late then that's normal. If they are two-to-four minutes later then that's them being fashionably late. Five or more minutes is taking too long and is when I should start getting concerned. In more than eight minutes I should go check up on them. If it's over ten minutes then they must have misheard what I said. If it's over twenty minutes then they are ditching me," Olivia thought to herself as she waited.

The emolga spent several minutes in the foyer, waiting and making some taps on the floor with her foot. To her delight- the three others stepped into the room on time, each having their bags ready to head off into the town.

"Alrighty, we're all together! C'mon Locky and everyone else, let's get some noms!" Olivia cheerfully said while making an arm motion to indicate they should move out the door.

"Aight. Though I prefer if you didn't act like the leader," Locke said. "This was me and Tamin's idea."

"Oh? Okay then. As you wish~" Olivia gave a slight bow as she spoke.

"Let's go then," Crystal said.

Locke began walking in the direction out of the guildhouse with the other three immediately following him.

They stepped through the yard out into the greater town. The buildings gave a level of protection that shielded them from wind, so the frigid air did not bear down on this group like it had earlier that day. Fallen leaves were visible on the sidewalks and edges of streets despite the relatively frequent sweeping efforts. Though the season ensured they would be open for very much longer, each roadside store still had their lights on to welcome citizens and travelers alike for service.

Whilst far from the continent's largest city, the town was still expansive and encompassed several square kilometers of land. Its buildings and roads remained far more evergreen and resisted change by the season then the forests, plains, and mountains that surrounded it in all directions.

Along the way through the town, the group chatted with each other to pass the time.

"I'm really glad we are together again," Locke said to Crystal.

"You've mentioned that already," she responded.

"Well, still."

"Yeah. I will say, I'll never forget those runs we did together when we first met."

"I was good, wasn't I?" Locke asked, sounding prideful.

"Yeah. What was that tip you told me again? 'The two rules for fighting an electric type'?"

"Never try to grapple one, never let yourself be grappled by one."

"Right. Because you can't maintain one or break out of one when you're being pulsed with electricity. Yeah, I still go by that to this day."

"Glad I can impart some of the wisdom from my experiences then," Locke proclaimed.

"Maybe you shouldn't be too boastful of yourself, admitting your flaws is the best way of mitigating them," Tamin tried to advise the shinx, as this was the most prideful she had heard from him.

"Nah, I think I'm alright," Locke said, not bothering to make a gallows humor joke like he typically would.

"Yeah, Locky's great!" Olivia said.

"Mhm. Like, is there anything that you can do that I can't?" the shinx asked Tamin.

"Walk on two legs," the minccino immediately responded.

"Woah, woah, woah. I can totally do that."

Locke stopped in place and shifted his stance so that he stood on his hind legs so he appeared taller than he normally did. The other three were prompted to stop as well and turn to look at him.

"See? I can do this fine," Locke replied while he continued to stand in place. As he stood for longer, he needed to start shifting his center of gravity due to the bags he had and the others could see his hind legs began to shake. They all had their curiosity captured by seeing him in this unusual position.

"Now walk," Tamin said after they observed him standing for a few seconds.

Following the command, Locke began putting one foot in front of the other. The first step was rough, but he continued to do his best to walk on two legs despite that. He stretched his upper arms out to help with his balance and his star tail seemed to take a mind of its own with it moving around to help retain balance. He got forward several meters while his eyes were focused on the ground, but then his right foot stepped in one part where the ground was slightly lower than normal. His balance was immediately thrown off by this and he quickly shifted his upper paws and tail to account for it along with a series of swift steps. But he overcorrected himself by doing that and only a second later he collapsed onto his left side.

An embarrassed expression appeared on the shinx's face as he remained collapsed on the road. Each of the three others reacted differently to seeing him fail at walking on two legs, but the first one to make their reaction audible was Crystal who let out a hearty laugh.

"Stick to what you know," Crystal reassured him with a gesture to match.

Locke rolled himself back onto his front then got up again, walking on all fours once more. He approached the weavile Crystal with a blush on his cheeks.

"Well, it's official now. It would very much suck to be put into a situation where I had to walk on two legs or else die," Locke said, trying to bring some humor to the humiliating situation. "Good thing such a situation doesn't exist, right? Oops, well it looks like I've just jinxed it and the universe is gonna bite me with that sometime later. I guess that'll just be something to deal with when it happens. Or not be able to deal with. Either-or."

"It's alright, being a quadruped isn't too bad. I mean, if you get knocked prone in a fight you can get up a lot faster." Crystal tried to cheer him up.

"Well I also share that advantage, so either way it's things I can do that he can't." Tamin said.

The group continued on in silence for a few seconds. Locke was still slightly embarrassed but he tried to blow it off and Olivia was visibly annoyed at the group that ignored her.

_"Locke doesn't seem to be as friendly towards me when Crystal is around,_" Tamin wondered to herself.

After a moment, Locke talked to Crystal again.

"So anyway, you've been around here for longer than we have." Locke asked Crystal, "What are our options in town?"

"There are a couple of restaurants in town, but I know one in particular that we'll like. So that's where I'm going to lead us to," Crystal said as she walked ahead of the rest.

"We do have plenty of time, so we could check out a few diff-" Locke said before he got interrupted.

"No! I know where we're going. It's the best option," Crystal responded in a controlling voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Crystal," Locke instantly said apologetically, the slightest twinge of fear being embedded in his voice.

"It's okay. But do trust me, I know where to go," Crystal said, her voice quickly losing the controlling aspect it had just held.

"Mhm. Don't worry," Locke reassured to the weavile as he shifted back to normal as well.

"...So Olive, why exactly do-" Tamin tried to ask Olivia before she interrupted her.

"Don't call me Olive!" Olivia erupted.

"Wh- why? That's what you asked Locke to call you."

"Calling each other cute nicknames are only for boyfriends and girlfriends!"

"Wait, what?!" Locke asked, surprised and confused about what Olivia just said.

"It's just a fun thing people that are together do," Olivia explained, not knowing where Locke's confusion laid.

"No, I get that part. It's the boyfriend thing you mentioned that I don't get."

"You literally just met him yesterday." Crystal spoke, getting between Olivia and Locke, "You barely know each other."

"But we will get to know each other." Olivia responded, "You can spend your time with anyone, but love at first sight only happens with a few people."

A small argument erupted with Locke trying to tell Olivia off in the most polite way he could and Crystal defending him. Tamin just stood back and watched the madness unfold in front of her. Although the minccino did object to the things Olivia had said, she chose not to intervene (which Crystal was already doing) and studied the situation quietly, intrigued by how they acted.

"We're here!" Crystal interrupted after several minutes of talking, partly to escape the conversation he was in.

The group turned their heads to see that they were right in front of the town. They stopped their current conversation to look around.

"So where's the place were heading to?" Tamin asked.

Crystal silently pointed down a street to direct them using her claws. They heeded the command of this de facto leader and walked down the street in that direction.

"So what is this town anyway?" Tamin inquired as they passed by the colored buildings.

"It's been around here for a while and long before I got here." Crystal explained, "Not sure whether the town of the guild came first, but they've certainly expanded a lot because of each other.

A lot of the pokemon here are related to the guild, either directly or indirectly. Basically whenever any of the pokemon in the guild want to start a family (which a lot of them end up doing) since the guildhouse is no place to raise a child, they move to the town and get a house there. And those children end up being what populates this place."

"Huh. Neat," Tamin replied while looking around."Definitely a big 'six-degrees of separation' sort of thing going around here then."

As Tamin finished speaking, the group of four arrived at the doors to the restaurant. Like with the guildhouse it's main doors and windows were made to account for larger pokemon like abomasnow, and as a result they made the guild pokemon seem feebly small in comparison to it. Nevertheless, the door was designed so they would be capable of opening it. They passed through the enterance and came into the interior, making sure to get the door behind them to avoid letting unnecessary cold air inside. The inside of it was akin to that of a 1980s diner with a checkered tile floor and red chairs. It offered three sizes of chairs, tables, and booths for differently sized pokemon to sit at, but most were designed for pokemon that were the size of a pikachu. It was active with sizzling sounds coming from the kitchen and waiters moving around the store.

They didn't immediately bring their arguments into the building. Crystal took up a calm demeanor to talk with the pokemon at the register and asked for a table for four. The store attendants recognized the weavile and the scarves of the pokemon, so they treated them particularly respectfully and led them to one of the tables for pikachu-sized pokemon.

Crystal, Locke, Tamin, and Olivia took up seats and were asked for what drinks they wanted. Crystal knew they didn't have any alcoholic beverages, so she just requested "the hardest lemonade you can provide". Locke asked for a strawberry soda, Olivia asked for the same thing Locke requested, and Tamin requested for iced tea.

Their heliolisk waiter took their drink requests and placed four menus onto the diner table. As the waiter walked off, each of the four grabbed one of the menus to begin looking through it. The food offered was explicitly vegetarian, but such was expected and the location still managed to offer a variety of food nonetheless.

"Is there anything spicy here? That's what I would like," Locke thought out loud as he looked through the menus.

"I'm with you on that." Crystal said.

"Eh, I really don't like spicy stuff." Tamin said, "I just want something sweet."

"I'm kinda indifferent to all of this stuff, really..." Olivia said.

"I glad that none of the spicy stuff here seems dry. Dry food is terrible," Locke continued to think out loud.

"As long as it's not bitter I'm okay with anything here." Crystal discussed.

"...Okay I think I know what I want now," the minccino said as she put her menu down.

"Same here," Crystal said, "and Locke, I found the best food for you."

"Hang on, I'm still looking through this," Locke replied.

"No! Trust me, I know what you'd like the most," Crystal argued back.

"I'm just-"

"Trust me."

"Okay, fine," Locke relented. He didn't have any anger in his voice, but more of just played it off for laughs.

The heliolisk waiter returned with their drinks. They took the beverages, had a few sips, and all ordered what food they wanted (although Crystal ordered for Locke as well). After writing them down on a notepad, he left them once more. With him walking off, the four leaned back in their seats to relax.

"This is the first chance I've had to just sit down since we went off on that mission," Tamin said while leaning back with her eyes closed to fully relax. "Feels nice, does it not?"

"It does," Locke replied.

"So, Locky, how'd the mission go?" Olivia said as she leaned forward towards the shinx and put her arms on the table to support herself.

"Oh, fine- y'know. Really went off without a hitch," Locke said. In his mind he remembered Tamin getting knocked out, but he decided to leave that detail out for her sake. Other than that, there wasn't much else that he thought of as having gone wrong during the exbidition.

"Great to hear!" Olivia replied, "I'm sure your performance was stunning during it."

"Inside voices, please," Crystal said, "Anyways, where has my shinx been?"

"YOUR shinx?"

"I said 'inside voices'. And let's not start this again."

"I've been here and there across the continent, really been doing all the same stuff you last saw me," Locke explained. "When you've been going through hell for years- and winning fights- the monsters at your side can feel neighbourly and like a routine."

"Eh, what I expected. Any feats from your solo adventures worth sharing?" Crystal asked as her voice perked up.

"I'll need a minute to think about that, but by your tone I can guess you got tales worth sharing," Locke said as she leaned closer to the weavile and smiled.

"A while before I joined this guild, I had a time where I was walking through a forest with a breloom I found, when suddenly some houndooms came running at us. Straight at us- with hungry eyes. Things must have been starving when they saw us as food. We were both caught off guard a bit, but luckily enough my claws were recently sharpened and I was still at my A-game. In fact, I got out of there with only a single slash.

I turned to the side and placed one claw slash in the breloom's leg and ran off as he fell to the ground. Those houndoom didn't run for me once I did that," Crystal said as he told the story with a smile on his face and exaggerated gestures.

"Ha, that totally reminds me of a story I had with a temporary companion. So I was going through a dungeon with a skitty that needed help out- she was as scared as you would imagine a scardy skitty would be. Anyways we were going through a dungeon, a thin ravine where I had been dealing with a lot of dungeon pokemon along the way.

We were reaching the end, but found out that a sand cave-in had happened near the end. I deduced we would be down there for a few days until some burrowing pokemon came around to dig it out as what always happened with mystery dungeons. The skitty immediately started freaking out, saying we were gonna run out of oran berries to eat and starve to death. I politely told her she was a fool, we weren't going to starve as we still had all the corpses of the dungeon pokemon down there to stop us from going hungry," Locke said, getting a similar smile as he spoke.

"Heheh, man, those lost pokemon can really be annoying sometimes. They're all freaking out and panicking that they're going to die, so you're the one that has to console them. Which is just frustrating as you're the one that's going to inevitably die in a mystery dungeon someday."

"Yeah. I wouldn't say they're all bad (I've met a particularly nice one, personally), but I can see your frustrations," the shinx said. "Man, it's been so long since we've last seen each other. Long enough that if one of us had died our corpse would rotten by now! But it looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer for that."

As the two exchanged their dark jokes, Tamin and Olivia both sat back with wide eyes, uneasy by the words being exchanged. They were almost terrified by it as for the first time they actually leaned towards each other for comfort. Ignoring this, Locke and Crystal continued snickering at each other's jokes.

"Uh... Locke?" Tamin said.

"Heheh, yeah?" the shinx asked as he turned to the minccino.

"These stories aren't true, right?" Tamin asked, still uneasy.

"What? Oh no, of course not," Crystal answered for Locke, "They're just stories to make jokes on, it's how we pass the time. I didn't actually leave a breloom to die like that."

"O-okay. I see," Tamin said as her head shifted forward again, giving a thousand yard stare instead of looking at anyone in particular.

While the minccino continued to be disrtubed by the joke-off that had just transpired, Locke and Crystal continued making quips at each other; but did so more quietly. However their attempts did nothing to stop Tamin's large ears and keen senses from hearing the off color jokes being made in their reunion. But after a few minutes, Olivia simply shook her head and brush off the words from earlier to return to normal. She made several attempts to interrupt on the conversation and speak to Locke directly, but the two managed to talk over her. It took a few tries, but eventually she managed to find a gap in their conversational subjects where she could successfully interject her own question into the mix.

"So, do you think we could go on your next mission together?" the emolga asked with ever-so-hopeful eyes.

"Going in with double electric types is bad for team coverage, so I don't think that's a good idea," Locke replied in honesty, so caught up in talking that he had temporarily forgotten about the creepy approaches the emolga had made before, "Even though our different sleep schedules makes it complicated, I think I do want to do another dungeon with Crystal sometime."

"I would very much like that to happen, you'll just have to stay up pretty late to make that work," Crystal said.

"I know-" Locke tried to say before he was interrupted.

"Aww, come on! Electric types are the best! You and I could handle anything together!" Olivia interjected, preventing the conversation from being between just Locke and Crystal again.

"And spicy sushi is the best. But if I spent my entire life eating only spicy sushi, I would be dead from malnourishment," Locke said, offering an analogy, "Types are the same. If you only have one you won't get far."

"They're the best! Plus I'm also a flying type, so I can beat the ground types of ya," Olivia said, keeping her voice at the maximum volume that could still be considered to be 'inside voices'. "Look at her though. She's just an ice and dark type."

"E-excuse me?" Crystal said.

"I mean, there was a time she had a heatstroke in temperatures we would only be sorta uncomfortable in. That should tell you enough about the different types," Olivia explained, trying to justify her comment.

"And I would be comfortable in temperatures you would be frostbitten in." Crystal argued.

"Can you paralyze several enemies at once though? I think not~"

The weavile opened her mouth in preparation to break out into a full argument. But with split second timing, the heliolisk came back with several plates.

"Your food is ready," he spoke before Crystal could.

The four silently turned to the waiter, and watched their meals be passed in front of them. Each was well prepared and exactly what they asked for.

"Is everything going alright between you?" the waiter asked.

"Nah. It's all bad. I'll give you an extra tip to make up for it," Locke stated, to the helioisk's dismay.

The four at the table all turned to their food, although Tamin's stomach had already been stolen by the dark humor being exchanged earlier. The loudest sound there ended up coming from Locke as he chewed with his mouth open. Although everyone's mood had been brought down, the food was far better than what had been provided by the guild. After a few minutes of them gnawing down on their dishes, Tamin excused herself to go to the bathroom and talking began again shortly after that.

"So…" Crystal spoke to Olivia before fully knowing what to say next, "Are you going to say anything or-"

"I was speaking to Locke and not you, ya' know." Olivia replied.

"You said what you said."

"Look, I'm sorry. I just wanted this to be between me and Locke."

"Olivia? Can I see you outside for a minute?" Locke said to Olivia.

"Oh, really!?" Olivia said excitedly, her voice once again raising by the prospect of finally being able to talk to the shinx for a long conversation directly.

"Yes," Locke confirmed, "come."

Locke jumped down from his seat and Olivia quickly came after him. They left through the front door and swung around the side of the building to delve into the thin alley that existed behind it. They went to the back in an area typically only visited by store employees leaving to throw out trash. Several trash cans, dumpsters, and a small puddle of grease existed there. While obviously not an appealing place to be, Emolga was still blushing in pure joy while her heart raced because it was Locke bringing her back there.

"Olive?" the shinx asked as he stopped and turned around to face the emolga.

"Yes!?" she said as she jumped up a slight amount, her paws being together and held in front of her neck.

"Look, I am going to be blunt about this." Locke spoke straight from his heart about his feelings without considering what her reaction would be, "I don't like you. I don't love you, and I ain't your boyfriend.

Maybe we haven't talked too much and you haven't been given a proper chance to introduce yourself, maybe. However from what I have seen of you so far, you are just a prejudicial creep.

I don't exactly remember what I said to you earlier today. I intended this to just be me and Tamin celebrating our first true mission, but it ended up being nothing.

Not saying we should never talk again, just stop… Stalking me or whatever THIS is."

Olivia was taken back and devastated. She spent a moment thinking about it and taking in everything that Locke said.

"Fine then," She eventually said.

"Alright. You're taking this better than I thought you would," Locke quietly said to himself.

"I suppose time spent together is a bigger factor in relationships than I first judged. I'll make you love me one day, just not today."

"Hmm?" Locke muttered, confused.

"One way or another." Olivia whispered to herself as she walked off.

"Wait, what are you implying?" Locke asked as he chased after Olivia.

Olivia abruptly turned around and began going back to the restaurant front and inside, with Locke coming after her. For once Olivia ignored what the others said and instead just went straight towards the table.

While they were gone, Tamin had returned from the bathroom and still had moist paws from having washed them for an unusually long amount of time. But Olivia ignored them. The emolga only pulled out her coin purse to count up some money, set it down in the middle of the diner table, and left. She didn't even bother to retrieve her leftovers. Locke decided to not chase after Olivia and say things to get her attention, instead just leaving her to do her business.

"What was that all about?" Crystal asked.

"I… don't think I fully know myself." Locke responded in a confused tone while he jumped back onto his seat. Tamin also began counting the money Olivia had left at that time.

"Well, she's gone now, I suppose," Locke said as he hopped back onto his seat. "Just the three of us now."

"What did you tell her?" the weavile inquired.

"Just that I don't love her and I ain't her boyfriend," Locke explained.

"Huh… I guess she finally took the hint then," Crystal said as she pondered.

"Don't count on that being the case," Tamin stated as she finished counting the coins the emolga left. "This is enough money to pay for both hers and Locke's meals, even accounting for his share of the tip money. If she didn't want to stick with Locke, I doubt she'd want to pay for his meal as well."

"Huh... That's kind of awkward," Locke said as he was taken aback, blushing a bit. "I feel weird about having her pay for me, but I don't want to chase after her to give the money back either."

"Let's just use it, money is money," Tamin said. "If you don't have to pay for your meal, could you cover half of mine then?"

"Sure. Seems fair," the shinx said.

"Hang on, if it's only the three of us, then we can spend the rest of the day without that crazy emolga," Crystal said. "We even have some extra money to burn because of what she left."

"Oh, you're right," Locke said as his mood began to turn up again. "Let's head to some place else once we eaten up."

"I'll be thinking of places to go to," Crystal said as she returned to her food.

"That's a relief. I'll be sticking around as well," Tamin said.

The three finished their meals and happily gave the remaining money needed to pay for their meals (with Locke giving the extra tip he promised to). Afterwards they finally left the diner and went back out onto the streets.

"So, where would you like to go?" Locke asked Crystal.

"Well, I considered going to some show, but I realized that it would probably be too late for you two and you definitely wouldn't have the money for it," Crystal explained to them. "However, there is a nice antique shop I like, so I think taking you there would be nice."

"Sounds like a plan," Locke affirmed.

"I would like that. It sounds like a simpler activity to do that won't involve getting hurt or hearing yelling," Tamin responded.

"Great. Follow, I know the way around this town," the weavile said as she gestured forward with her claw.

The three went down the streets once again, passing by more fallen leaves and barren trees as they were led by their weavile guide. They traversed the streets for another few minutes, with the town receiving a yellow and orange shading as the sun was setting on the horizon. The new colors gave the town a new beauty to make it seem more like a true home to the pokemon who had never known what a safe home felt like.

As they navigated once more with the occasional small talk between Locke and Crystal, Tamin got the feeling that she was being watched. She first tried to ignore it, but the eerie feeling only grew on her as the trio stepped forth. Eventually, she started to hear movement in the trees that they had recently passed by, and the minccino began to turn her head around to actively search more for an unknown watcher. Twice she turned around only to find nothing in the twilight, but on the third time she caught the sight of a figure which resembled a flying squirrel that was going between the rooftops above them, which quickly ducked down before they could keep a line of sight for long.

"Let's be getting to that antique shop soon," Tamin said shortly after seeing the figure duck out of her view, desiring to get out of there.

"It's just around the block, don't be impatient," Crystal retorted.

They continued going to the store, with the minccino increasing her speed to get just behind Crystal. With only another minute of traveling, they reached the front of a building with an unusual exterior that made it stand out in the town.

"Ah, here we are. The loveliest place at this piece of civilization," the weavile said as she proudly stood in front of the store's main doors.

"Looks good," Locke commented.

"Yes. Let's head inside," Tamin said as she began to walk forward.

"Quit your impatience," Crystal said, being impatient herself.

"Sorry, I just would like to get indoors," Tamin said, not wanting to be too specific about what was scaring her.

They went inside, and revealed before them was a storehouse which had wooden shelves upon wooden shelves of unique ornaments. They were stacked up shelves far taller than the pokemon of the trio were, with pathways between the shelves and antique furniture being present as well. While the place appeared to be of an older decade then the other buildings or even the diner was, the structure and all it housed was better dusted, lacquered and maintained than anything else they had seen in the town thus far. It was as if they had stepped past a temporal portal while they went through the doorway. Crystal smiled at this familiar location while the other two were given a sense of awe while they rotated around to immerse themselves in the library of shelves.

"I can see why you like this place so much, Crystal!" Locke said while taking in the beauty.

"Yeah. Now come along, let's take a closer look around," the Weavile said, "I can assure you that each individual part of this place is as pretty as the whole."

"Would it be alright if I wandered around by myself?" Tamin said, wanting to be independent and following no nose but her own. She also felt she was safer from Olivia since she was indoors at the time.

"Of course, go ahead," Crystal said without even turning her head towards the minccino.

"Alright," Tamin replied.

The group split up with Crystal going directly forward to get deeper into the antique store while Tamin went over to the side. Being able to sit during dinner was a relief to her, but having a chance to be alone was an even larger relief.

The minccino stepped around curiously to look at the different odds and ends, but also kept vigilant in case an emolga showed up as well. The trinkets ranged greatly in meterial, with metal, porcelain, cloth, and wooden objects all being on display (though no ivory). Every corner of the store was filled with so many items of so many different colors that it was almost disorienting for Tamin to go through. After less than a minute of traveling, one thing caught Tamin's eye in particular: a holder of various magazines that was beside one of the doors.

She made her way towards the stand, part because the plastic it was constructed out of made it stand out like a flare in night among the olden store, but she had other reasons to be attracted to it as well. Tamin checked if there was any magazine name that seemed familiar to her- and sure enough- she found a magazine named 'Stone Weekly' that triggered memories of hers. Tamin pulled one of the copies out and began flipping through the pages to glance over its contents as a method of checking, stopping only once she found a page she feared.

Depicted on the magazine page was a family consisting of a cinccino father, a cinccino mother, two minccino sons, and two minccino daughters. Each posing for a staged photograph in a background trying too hard to look squeaky clean. Tamin's eyes locked on this page and the younger of the minccino on it, for that minccino was her. She could precisely see the forced smile on her face that she had to please her parents and not face their retribution. Tamin could remember the exact day she was forced to take that particular photo, with her and all of her siblings being staged like dolls to give the illusion of a perfect family. It was sickening to her to see what was being displayed, to see her parents again, and to see the magazine buy into the lies and depict this as a golden nuclear family without flaws as the memories of every time she was beaten, cut, yelled at, and locked in her room flashed in her mind.

Her eyes met with her own on the photograph, but she kept her composure. She closed the magazine and turned back to the holder to grab every other copy of that issue. Tamin gathered five of the issues in total, and then headed over to the store register with them. All five of the issues were placed on the counter, and she asked "How much for all of them?". While the cashier was left befuddled, she politely told her how much it was and Tamin retrieved the money from her bags to pay for it.

Now in possession of all the copies of that magazine issue the store had, Tamin wandered out of the antique store and went around to the back of the store. She got to a trashcan where she meticulously ripped up each of the issues to throw into the trash can. She began in an enraged frenzy but gradually slowed as she went through it; caring only that the magazines were gone so that no one could read them and see that picture of her. Once she was done, Tamin took a step back to reflect on what she had just done; grinning in her cleverness to destroy the evidence of her past and embracing the intrigue of the situation.

Meanwhile, Locke and Crystal were still together and looking around the antique shop. They had gone past the shelves of small items and into a section of the store which mainly housed vintage wood furniture. The pieces widely ranged in sizes for all different sizes of pokemon, having some pieces for pokemon as large as an arcanine to as small as a skitty.

"So Crystal, since you've been living at the guildhouse for a while now, has there been any casual stuff you've started doing?" Locke asked as he passed by a shelf of many clockwork clocks that were turned off.

"I've taken up some calligraphy artwork now," Crystal said, "my room is basically an art studio now."

"Oh, that's really cool, you'll have to show me that sometime," Locke said.

"Yeah. I got most of the decorations for my room from here,"

"I see."

They continued browsing the inventory for fun for a little longer. But eventually, Locke saw a table that caught his eye. It was perfect for his size since he saw that the table's surface was below his shoulders, yet the height was perfect enough for him to interact with objects on it easier than the objects on the floor. It was perfectly cleaned, had a service that was only slightly longer than his each, and it had some drawers that were sized well for him. He stopped to inspect it closer and Locke remembered about how blank his room at the guild was.

"Hmm? Does something have your eye?" Crystal asked.

"Yeah," Locke said as he continued looking at the table.

The weavile came over to the shinx to inspect the same table, with her seeing its designs and properties as well.

"Do you think it's something you want?" Crystal inquired.

"Yeah, but I'm not going to be able to afford it right now," Locke said, "I think I might come back to this at a later day when I have the money. Then again, winter is coming up soon, so that will be awhile off."

"Hmm… Tell you what, I can buy it for you. Free of charge," Crystal said to him.

"Really?!" Locke said excitedly.

"Yeah, I'll even help you get it into your room," she reassured.

"Wow, thanks!"

"No problem, let's get this bought now."

The two worked together to bring the table over to the register, where the weavile produced the coins necessary to pay. They got a temporary flat cart where the workers helped setting the table down, and then Locke and Tamin went out onto the streets again to bring it back to the guildhouse.

"Thanks a lot for this, Crystal," Locke said as he pushed the cart with the side of his head and one of his paws while walking forward on the other three paws.

"You're welcome. I was just wanting to help an old friend," Crystal as she pulled the cart, leading the way, "I only ask that you treat this gift of mine with care. Put a scratch in it and I'll put a scratch in you."

"Ha, fair enough. Man, it's crazy to think how quickly we got back together after finding each other again just yesterday."

"I agree. You're just like how I last saw you. Good times indeed."

"Yeah…" Locke said.

As they continued pushing the cart forward, Locke's mind wandered. He remembered about Olivia again, and while he didn't particularly want anything to do with the emolga at that time, Olivia did serve to put certain ideas in her mind from what she had said.

"So I, uh, thinking," Locke spoke as he began to stutter, his words defying how he planned this out in his head, "and we know a lot about each other. So do you think, (or, uh) want to be something a little more? Like, uh-"

Locke decided to skip the lead up he was having trouble speaking and bite the bullet of what he was trying to get through.

"Want to be, like, boyfriend and girlfriend?" Locke said as he began to blush red.

"Oh?" Crystal said, taken back by the request, "Is that what you want?"

"Yes." Locke said as he turned he continued to blush and avoided complete eye contact.

"I… Guess I am just worried that if this goes wrong it will kinda bring us apart forever," Crystal admitted.

"We will always be great friends," he reassured.

"Alright then; let's do this," she replied, "I think you'd make a good boyfriend for me."

"Great!" Locke enthusiastically said, still pushing the cart.

"So should we arrange for a date tomorrow or something?" the weavile inquired.

"Sounds right," Locke said.

"Nice..."

**End of chapter 7**


	8. An Even Investigation

The morning light shined over the land once again. Clouds filled the skies and casted moving shadows upon the lands, town, and guildhouse.

In the plains laid the town, in the town's edge laid the guildhouse, and in the outer halls of the guildhouse was Tamin. Like what she had tried for the day before, Tamin leaned against the walls with her eyes closed and ears perched up to eavesdrop on the pokemon she lived with. Talk about what missions to do, smalltalk and even a little bit of dirty talk. All voices talking and bouncing around the building

Tamin didn't truly contemplate the ethics of this eavesdropping on others. It wasn't that she knew this was wrong but her curiosity got the best of her, it just hadn't crossed her head at all.

Keeping track of the many different voices echoing around provided some challenge, but the minccino had already begun committing the different voices to memory as a method to distinguish them.

A different problem that mildly irritated her was that the way she was positioned, all of the sounds she was hearing was in her left ear, making the ear feel different from her right. She actually considered turning herself around to make her right ear hear the voices and to have the appealing feeling of symmetry in the different ears.

"How's your drawing going?" Tamin heard Max ask, remembering him from back from when he rescued her and Locke before they joined the guild.

"Not the best, to be honest," Armin replied, in the same voice of a lucario that she had not heard for a while, "I hope to make some more progress once I'm done with the mission for today."

"Would you like to go on a date later today?" she heard Dewott ask.

"Thanks, but for today I'd like to try to meditate outside. It's warm and this could very well be the last good day of the year for it," Tamin heard Mienshao reply.

"So what's up with that Aron? I have never seen her talk?" Tamin heard a fraxure in the guild ask.

"I have no idea. Part of me wonders if she is even a guild member. She's just kind of… There," Tamin heard Froslass respond.

Many different voices, many different stories. The minccino's mind dedicated some mental power to philosophize on how each of the pokemon there had just as much of a history behind her as she posed. But for the rest of her, the primary focus was on taking in as many words as she could like a child running around to try out all the different candies in a candy shop.

As she indulged herself in this desire, the minccino's large ears picked up something more concerning.

"Have you been handing notes to other people?"

"What? N-no of course not."

This exchange of words was different from the others, both in tone and in subject. The first voice sounded more feminine yet young with an assumed judgmental tone while the second voice sounded more masculine and spoke in a tone that Tamin could tell was the tone of lying despite never having heard his voice before nor having seen his mannerisms while he spoke.

"Hmm. I shall trust you for now, but do not push my trust. I will not hesitate to tell of what you have done in the past if you tell anyone of what I do, regardless of your chosen method of communication. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes. I understand, there will be no further complications."

At that point, Tamin's entire curiosity had been stolen by this eerie conversation she could faintly hear. She shifted her posture again and focused on those quiet words, sounding like some underworld dealing that was a far cry from the noble justice the guild seemed to offer.

"'Further complications' you say? I was under the impression that you were not handing any notes out, so if you were not doing that then why would it be 'further' complications? Have you been naughtier than you're willing to let on?"

"Well, it's just a figure of speech, you see. Of course I have not been doing any of that- I would never. I-I'm just saying we won't be needing to have another conversation like this in the future, that's all. P-please."

"Un-like-al-lee, I say. This is precisely what I was referring to when I said you are not to push my trust. From the current parameters, it sounds like I'm in need of giving you another session in my…" Tamin overheard the feminine voice saying until the tone trailed down in volume to become too quiet for even Tamin's keen senses to hear.

The minccino's curiosity was still hooked like a fish at the end of a fishing rod, "just what in the world is going on between them? Who are they even?" were questions that reverbed in her mind. Becoming ignorant to the other conversations, she sprung into action and began moving herself in the vague direction she heard the voices in to investigate.

Tamin brought herself to the east side of the guildhouse's main floor, seeing an entire hallway of personal chambers before her, and none she had gotten a chance to learn who occupied them yet. Since she could discern that the voices were on the same altitude to her as they neither arose from the floor nor came from above, basic logic dictated that it was in one of the east wing rooms that the conversation had taken place. Thus, she began walking down the hallway while right beside the doors, slowly walking down with her ears still focused to try to find a room that had sound emanating from therein.

After only but a few seconds of walking while in focus, Tamin heard the faint sound of a voice talking in a room she was directly beside. Wasting no time, Tamin leaned onto the door to rest an ear against it and listen into the room. Initially, she heard soft purring inside and what sounded to be very slight moans. She thought these could have been the same pokemon, so she continued listening in for them to start speaking.

"Ooh, you're getting much better at this~"

"Thank you, glad you're liking this more."

"You practiced with tying a cherry stem together with your tongue, didn't you?"

"As you suggested."

"Wonderful, that's so wonderful~"

"Although… can I ask why you're holding my tail?"

"Enough talking, more smooching~"

Tamin took her ear off of the door while the signs of being disturbed began to appear on her face. While this room did contain an evidentially feminine and masculine voice, these were not the ones Tamin had heard earlier. These two voices were ones that Tamin did recognize as belonging to Sebastien the meowstic and the guildmaster Espeon.

"Excuse me?" a voice in the hallway asked Tamin.

The minccino turned herself around to see that it was Rustin the meowstic who had spoken to her. The blue and white cat pokemon stood in the middle of the hallway with his paws together and a stern gaze locked right on Tamin.

"Ah, hello there, Rustin. How have you been on this wonderful day?" Tamin replied casually with added mannerisms and getting rid of any remnants of the disturbed look she momentarily had. "It's been a bit since we last saw each other, hasn't it?"

Tamin was a believer that effectively lying was less to do with coming up with the most plausible story and far more about how the words were told. As she spoke, she made sure she said it in the exact same tone she used in normal conversations, made sure her body language and paw movements were the same as someone trying to express a truthful story. She ensured she had standard facial expressions, and she kept eye contact with the meowstic while she spoke.

"That's my sister's room," Rustin stated while pointing towards the door.

"Oh, that's what it is, alright," Tamin said as she continued to maintain her practice of lying as well as she could. She didn't let herself stutter as she was aware that would give it away quickly. "Sorry, I just tripped up in the hallway and landed on the door."

"You… tripped in the hallways and landed on the door?" Rustin said, his voice caught between trying to decide if it wanted to be confused or serious.

"Yeah. Forgive my clumsiness, I'm still getting used to all the skills an explorer needs," Tamin said while she gave an awkward smile as though she was embarrassed. "Everyone's a rookie at some point, eh?"

Rustin's expression had shifted away from the stern gaze he once had to a face of abject bewilderment. His lips moved to form the word "wha?" without him verbally emitting any sound.

"You were leaning against the door with your ear pressed against the door to my sister's room, I saw you," Rustin said through his bewilderment. By all accounts he saw a pokemon that seemed to be speaking the truth, but he had to deal with the narrative she was telling conflicting with what he swore he saw.

"It was only for a few seconds. I heard some sounds inside, so I wanted to figure out what I was hearing," Tamin continued to say, paw expressions and all.

"So you were listening in on them?"

"Just to figure out what the sounds were. Is it not normal for pokemon to try to investigate strange sounds?" Tamin asked, trying to look taken aback and confused, "I know it's Sebastien's room now, so I won't be doing that again."

"I… guess that's normal," Rustin said.

"Do you doubt me?"

"What? No. But… what exactly _did_ you hear in there?"

"Just some talking, not much else," Tamin said while raising her shoulders to shrug.

"Um, okay then. For future reference, don't be listening into anyone's rooms. Even if you do hear odd sounds," Rustin said.

"Understandable," she affirmed.

Rustin turned his body away from Tamin, and turned his head a moment later. After she saw the meowstic turn away, Tamin reoriented herself as well and walked down the hallway to distance herself from him. After taking a few steps to ensure the conversation was over, a clever grin appeared on Tamin's face. "I can't believe I actually got away with that lie. A lie against a psychic type, no less. I really have refined my technique."

Although she was successful in avoiding any repercussions from eavesdropping on Espeon and Sebastien, she was unsuccessful in her original goal of investigating the strange conversation she had heard. She still sought to find the source of it, but knew she was on too high of profile to investigate the hallway further.

Tamin went down the hallway, until she came up to one table display that caught her eye. It was a table that went up to her chest and had four portraits above it in a diamond formation. The top portrait displayed a whimsicott that was not familiar to Tamin, the two below that were of Espeon and Umbreon, and the bottom portrait was of Niot the chatot. But the portraits were not what the minccino's eyes were caught on. Instead, she gazed down on the table itself, with was covered in a white table cloth and had several decorations on top of it. The cloth was slightly misaligned from the center and hanged off in uneven ways. While details like this would easily go unnoticed by the typical pokemon, however Tamin had her attention immediately grabbed by it.

She began to start rearranging the cloth on the table, taking things off it so it would move better, and precisely folding the edges of it. The folding is what she put the most focus on; with making the most keen measurements she hold with careful folding, making some mistakes, correcting said mistakes, making a few overcorrections, and refining out those overcorrections to get into the perfect middle spot.

It was around that time that Rustin turned his head back to look at the minccino once more. In doing so, he got a direct look at her odd behavior. It took him a few seconds to simply mentally process what she was actually attempting to accomplish.

"Careful with those now, they rate high in sentimental value," Rustin announced to Tamin from across the hallway.

"I'm treating them with delicate care, don't you worry," Tamin stated, no longer having to tell bluffs to the meowstic as she was finishing up with the table. "I just need a little bit longer."

"Need? You don't need to fold that tablecloth up," Rustin said back, "just put it down."

"I know, but I just really feel like doing this. Just your typical compulsion, y'know… And~ I'm done."

"Compulsion? Tamin, I am aware this is a strange question to ask, but how often do you fold cloth?" Rustin said as the bewildered demeanor made a return and he stepped closer to the minccino again.

"A few times a day. I figure you could consider it a light hobby of mine, I simply enjoy doing it as a stress reliever," she answered in earnest.

"Really? So you just randomly get the compulsion to fold cloth multiple times a day, and it brings stress if you fail to do such a task? Is that what you're saying?"

"I mean, I suppose that is a way to put to words what I do. But you're making it sound like I'm an oddball," Tamin responded. "In fact, these past few minutes you've been questioning what I've been doing and trying to make me sound strange. For someone so high up in the guild's ranking with a high demeanor, you're seeming quite vindictive towards the guild's newcomers."

"An overreaction, to be sure. But this is all I need to know. I shall leave you now, there is another I desire to speak to now," Rustin said, downplaying the situation and avoiding the look of being offended by Tamin's descriptor.

Rustin turned around and walked away, leaving the hallway truthfully this time. Tamin spent a moment in confusion before she turned around and left the hallway as well, choosing to go the opposite direction that Rustin had traversed in.

She wasn't sure what her plan was at that point, and the suspicious conversation she had eavesdropped on had slipped its way out of her head due to Rustin's distractions. The minccino shook her paws to scatter off any dust they had accumulated from the table cloth as she rounded the corner. While the guildhouse's northern hall was revealed to her eyes, she was able to notice a familiar face coming towards her: the face of a male shinx.

"Hey Tamin," he said.

"Oh, hey Locke. How's it going?" Tamin replied.

"Going good. Have you done anything interesting today?" he said as he turned his body around and flicked his tail forward to indicate that Tamin should follow him.

"Not much, I got pestered by Rustin a bit," Tamin said as she began to follow.

"Oh yeah, he can get a bit annoying now and then. What did he get on you for today?"

"Nothing much. How has your day been?"

"I stayed up late to be hangin' with Crystal."

"Ah. Actually, now that I think about, there is one strange thing I heard today."

"Oh?"

"It was this strange conversation I overheard between two I didn't recognize, it sounded like one was blackmailing the other. I tried to look for the source of it, but I lost it."

"Overheard or eavesdropping?" he inquired.

"Eavesdropping I suppose. Do you think I should report what I heard to the higher ups here when I can?"

"Maybe no."

"Okay then. But I do want to unc-"

As they were still speaking and approached one of the staircase rooms, another familiar face approached them. Or rather, the same familiar face approached them another time. Tamin witnessed Locke the shinx turn the corner and faced them directly.

She was surprised immediately by this surreal moment, she had just witnessed what looked to be the exact same shinx approach her twice in a row. She even turned her head to check and indeed she saw them still there. The one that had approached them more recently got a focused look on his face while the one that had been with Tamin for some time began to look awkward.

"Hunter…" the one that had just turned the corner said to him. His tone eerily cold.

"What is going on?" Tamin asked.

"Oh well, I guess the charade is over now. T'was fun when it lasted." the one that was with Tamin previous said while an awkward smile.

"Wha-"

He jumped up into the air and did a backflip. Along the way, his body began charging with an aura of purple and black energies around it. Under those energies, the appearance of a shinx faded away and its place came the red and black appearance of a zorua.

"Wait! Woah, what?!" Tamin explained, being more confused by the display in front of her that was growing ever more surreal.

"You couldn't be satisfied by just tricking me, so you tried to pretend to be me as well!" Locke shouted at Hunter.

"Calm down, man. These are but just pranks, harmless ones at that," Hunter said, his voice being kept calm despite Locke's shouting and the chaos of the situation, ironically making him the eye of the chaotic storm. Nevertheless, a sly grin retained on his face.

"Pranks?! No, these are more than just pranks! You have just been an insufferable, berry-sucking pokemon that have targeted us for tricks! And for what, cheap freaking laughs?" Locke continued to shout at Hunter.

"Well you're right about that, they are for laughs. But I wouldn't exactly call them 'cheap', there's a decent amount of thought that goes into impersonation."

"You are so unbelievably annoying and should just screw off! I'm sure I was better than you when I was two freaking years old!" he said as electricity began crackling out of him into the nearby air.

"Can somebody please tell me what's going on?" Tamin innocently asked.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Call me Giritina or whatever you want. What are you going to do, hurt me?" Hunter said as he sat down on the carpet, his smile growing.

"I dang might!"

"Enough!" Niot the chatot shouted as he approached the three in the staircase room, "Enough, enough!"

Locke, Tamin, and Hunter all turned their heads to face the chatot in tandem. He held a notepad in one of his claws and had a rather disgruntled look on his face.

"Sorry about this," Tamin said to Niot, trying to de-escalate the situation and avoid getting in trouble, "I promise I didn't cause any of this."

"Can you please tell this zorua to frick off?" Locke asked Niot.

"That wasn't what I came to you for, but I do have to request that you do not shout or make threats of violence inside of the guildhouse. Remember, we have nocturnal pokemon sleeping here right now that we are most certainly not to wake up," Niot said.

"Mhm. I think my work here is done, now," Hunter said, his sly smile retaining as he sat on the carpet. Not a twinge of fear was in him for he knew that any act of aggression against him while Niot witnessed would end in the aggressor punished.

"What did you come here for then?" Tamin said, beginning to feel more comfortable as the chaos was dying down and it wasn't looking like she would face any punishment at the paws or talons of the guild's administrators.

"Based upon multiple factors including (but not limited to) us not fully knowing where you have been before, how healthy your lifestyles are, and if there are any health-based accommodations we need to make for you, we have scheduled you two to both have nurse's appointments with Audino in the infirmary. This is effective immediately and you will be made to attend this shortly."

"Really? You just suddenly decide to put us through a nurse appointment?" Tamin questioned, getting suspicious, "This is very little heads up you are giving to us."

"This was the decision that the guildmasters and other administrators have agreed to, so by the rules of this guild you are required to heed to it," Niot said, his tone sounding almost robotic, "After consideration, we have decided to implement a nurse check up into the process of recruiting every guild member. Consider this to be a continuation of your recruiting process to retroactively fulfill these newly enforced requirements."

"Sounds fair to me, no one wants a plague-bearer coming into the guild," Hunter interjected. "I don't even think dark types are edgy enough to find a way to justify that as a good thing."

"So are you forcing us to go to the infirmary now?"

"Provided they do not violate a pokemon's rights or the greater region's laws, a guild member is to obey by the commands laid out by their guildmaster," Niot said as he showed his notepad to them which contained the order he was describing along with his, Espeon's, and Umbreon's signatures at the bottom. "As the order is clear and explicit, you are to go now. You will be free to file a complaint afterwards."

"You sound like a lawyer," Locke commented.

"I studied law before I decided to lend my skills to work at this guild," he explained. "The decision came from both from noting my cousin's success as second-in-command of a different guild (far away, mind you) and me noting that this guild was far more moral than the noble houses that I could have taken up work at."

"Umm...okay?" Locke said, not entirely following his story or knowing how to respond to it.

"Come on now, let us not get into filibustering. You two are summoned to the infirmary, so follow me."

Locke and Tamin turned to notice that Hunter had snuck away sometime while they were focused on Niot. Not seeing a point to rebelling against this simple order, they both followed him.

Downwards into the basement, sideways into the halls and then straight forward, they reached the door to the infirmary. The doors window was higher up than Locke and Tamin, making them unable to look into the room's interior. The door was thicker and far more heavy duty than the other doors in the guild, being able to essentially airlock and prevent germs from getting through.

Niot opened the door with a lower doorknob. As the way was opened up, they had line of sight on the room and Audino inside.

The infirmary was larger than the individual rooms were. It contained two reclined chairs with adjustable arm rests, countertops designed to match Audino's height, countless drawers and locked cabinets holding many different medical supplies and devices, and more. Across from the entrance were two well sealed doors to smaller chambers and labeled as "quarantine". Tamin's eyes swung across the room to study all that was inside of it, and one detail she found off was a few dentistry tools.

"Nice to see you, Locke and Tamin," Audino greeted them, "I hope that you have both had wonderful days."

"What exactly is this impromptu appointment for? There seems to be stuff all over the place here," Tamin said.

"I am adept in many different veterinarian skills. I serve as the guild's nurse, doctor, and dentist. So today will just be a general checkup."

"Ah, a medical expert. For the healthy, for the sick, for the dying, and for the dead."

"Umm, not so much on that last part," Audino said, slightly uncomfortable by Locke's comment.

"Eh, that's fine. Not like the dead need much help anyways. They'll rot by themselves, just as we all."

"Umm… well, anyways, it would be much easier to work with you one at a time. So why don't you come first, Tamin."

"Alright," Tamin said as she stepped forward.

"Come with me, Locke. Let's leave them to this," Niot said.

"Don't need to say," the shinx replied as he followed.

Tamin went over to the closer of the two chairs while Locke and Niot left. The minccino hopped onto the chair, rested her arms on the armrest and had her tail go through a rather wide tailhole on the back of the chair. But as she did, she noticed that there were plastic arm straps present on both of the arm rests. While they weren't currently being used and lacked any mechanism to automatically snap on her, she still avoided putting her paws in the section where the arm straps occupied. The minccino immediately became suspicious on why they were present, but didn't make any questions.

The door clicked into place and Audino came over to Tamin once they were isolated.

I'm going ask a few questions about your lifestyle," Audino said as she retrieved some items.

"Okay,"

"First of all, how cleanly do you keep yourself? We need to know if it's possible that you're brought any germs into the guildhouse."

"Quite," Tamin replied, choosing against using many words when she felt few words would suffice.

"When was the last time you've bathed? Sorry if these are personal, they are what I've been told to ask."

"Not in a few days. My species takes dust baths instead of water baths to clean, and while I have gotten a large bowl in my room for that purpose, I haven't yet gotten the money for the right dust. I will soon enough, so you don't need to worry."

"That is reassuring to hear."

Audino had retrieved some thin metal tools and was using it to better examine Tamin's fur, and to push the fur aside to look at the pinkish skin beneath it for anything that was off. Tamin slightly recoiled at her fur being touched, but didn't remove herself from the chair to let Audino continue checking her. When the nurse kept examining sections of the minccino's skin, she could tell that not all was right. There were thin white lines that were scattered all over her flesh like random brush strokes of a child with a canvas. It didn't take long for her to figure out what it was, it was scar tissue that rested all over her.

"Uh, ma'am, can I ask about these scars over your body?" Audino asked, beginning to get genuinely concerned for Tamin's well being as she had never seen that amount of scar tissue present on a pokemon before.

"Oh that? Don't mind those, they're just birthmarks across my body," Tamin said, beginning to use her skills in deception once again just like what she has done with Rustin not even an hour prior.

"Are you sure? Birthmarks are reddish whilst these markings are pale," Audino asked. "If you've been through something that has inflicted these onto you, then you are fine with telling us."

"Birthmarks are 'reddish'? I've never heard of such a thing before," Tamin said whilst faking confusion. "I suppose that could be true for some pokemon species, but it isn't for minccino."

"Um, okay," Audino said

Continuing her inspection of her, Audino came up to Tamin's paws. She could tell something was off with those immediately as well; the webbings between the individual fingers in her paw were almost entirely severed away. She could see red and pink near the center of the paw where they used to be, she could spread her fingers out far more than she could normally have because of this and it certainly could not be any birthmark.

"What happened to your paws?" audino asked as she grabbed the minccino's paw and felt it.

"Oh those? It was a tree climbing accident that happened a while back," Tamin said again, smoothly lying to put a lamp shade over the truth rather than a light, "I don't quite remember what happened. I think some flying pokemon might've put up some barbed wire as a rather aggressive way to defend its nest."

"Well you should be very careful with that. Watch for infections and don't stretch your fingers out too much. Your paw will be a lot more fragile, so you need to take care of it," Audino said, her voice reaching new levels of concern that the appointment had not previously known.

"I'm aware," Tamin said nonchalantly.

The nurse pokemon went over to the imfirmry's countertops where she grabbed a noteboard and wrote down on it, detailing what she had learned of Tamin so far. She was willing to look into Tamin's claims that the pale marks were birthmarks, but was not fully convinced at that point.

For several minutes more, the appointment went on. Audino asked many more questions to the minccino that were at varying degrees of sensitivity, with Tamin answering them all. For anything that touched in specific information in her past, she told consistent lies to keep her history veiled. Tamin picked out lies that were believable over lies that made herself look better, even if she had to paint an embarrassing image of herself. When asked if she knew needed any form of medication, Tamin vehemently told her she did not. Beyond the questions, Audino also checked Tamin's ears with an octoscope, her throat by placing a wooden stick on her mouth, her teeth with dentist equipment, and had her take an eye test. Audino deemed her to pass all the checks and even get above average with the eye exam, so she wrote down the rest of the information and dismissed Tamin.

During the time where Tamin was in the infirmary, Locke sat with Niot not far outside the room. The chatot watched the shinx carefully to make sure he did not wander off (like he was aware he did before in the test mission) but avoided touching him with his talons as he was afraid of getting shocked. Locke did loyally sit there, but was awfully bored during it. His mind attempted to think of some dark joke to tell, but came up blank as his sense of humor lended itself to responses rather than unsolicited comments. Additionally, Niot secretly wrote a message on his notebook when Locke was not leaning over to see it.

Once Tamin was dismissed, Niot hurried Locke inside of the infirmary, not even giving Locke a chance to talk with the minccino before he was put inside of the room.

"Alright, your turn now," Audino said as she approached them.

"Yep. Might as well make this quick," Locke replied.

As the pink pokemon closed the distance between them, Niot held a folded up message to her. She bent down to take it, straightened herself, unfolded the message and began reading it.

"Don't be afraid to use the arm straps on him, he has continued to seem violent towards other members. Earlier today he said 'I just might' in response to someone asking 'what are you going to do, hurt me?' I believe we should use restraints sooner rather than later," the message read in Niot's precise handwriting.

"...Why don't you take a seat, Locke," Audino said as she kept her eyes on the note.

The shinx walked over to the same chair Tamin used and hopped onto it. He sat with his four paws on the bottom of the chair instead of leaning against the back with his front paws on the armrests, though his tail still dropped through the chair's tailhole.

Audino first walked over to the countertops on the room's edge and retrieved some rubber gloves. Whilst the gloves typically served the purpose of protecting her patients from her own germs, this time it served the opposite function of protecting her body from the shinx's electricity. Once she had them on, she came back to the chair to see Locke again.

Her eyes went between the shinx and the plastic arm straps. The words on Niot's note as well as the stories she had been told of Locke harming Sebastien and Hunter were in her mind, but as she looked at the eyes of the first stage evolution, she couldn't quite see a match. She attempted to visualize a scene of her placing Locke's front paw on the armrest to restrain him, but such a thing just seemed bizarre to do. For a few seconds she tried to make a plan in her head, but was at a loss for words on how she would explain it to Locke and could imagine him resisting in a bad way if she tried that.

"Let's start with some questions," Audino said, not doing anything with the arm straps.

"Okay,"

Just as she had done with Tamin, she gave a series of questions to Locke. This time around, several questions were added on that were based around Locke's electricity abilities and his rather primal nature. Locke's answers were direct and honest without any deception behind it, but they painted the picture of a pokemon who had a squalid lifestyle rather than the refined self-care the minccino had. He hadn't taken any baths in awhile or really focused on keeping himself clean to any extent.

After the questions, Audino checked his fur and skin. She saw specks of dirt and other undesirable particles found inside of it, but that was all expected. What was less than expected was when she found a mark of distinctly frostbitten flesh at the part where the neck met with the chest.

"You have some frostbite. Have you gone into any particularly cold areas recently?" Audino politely asked, even though she knew the mark was too thin and too specific of an area to be caused by natural cold exposure.

"Oh that? Don't mind that, it's fine," Locke said.

"Frostbites can be serious, and you should treat them as such. I need to know how you got that."

"It was a few days ago when I was fighting some cold types," Locke said, not having as refined of lies as what Tamin could do. "My body can take it."

Audino could tell this wasn't the truth as she could identify the frostbite as being recent and getting frostbites weren't common from explorers fighting ice types, but she wouldn't push him onto that matter. Regardless of how he got it, it was something that needed treatment.

She retrieved some ointments from cabinets and applied them to Locke's frostbitten mark. "This is the exact type of thing we had you go to this appointment for," she retorted.

After applying the skin care, the next step Audino had in mind was to retrieve more dentist tools (a set that was cleaned, different from what she used with Tamin) to inspect his teeth. Locke wasn't fully cooperative with the teeth checkup as he wasn't comfortable with sharp objects being brought near him. He leaned back and tensed up to be ready to fight back if he needed to, but the unfortunate nurse was able to be careful enough to still get a look at them. They were perfectly fine as although he had barely ever cleaned his teeth in his life, he had hardly ever had any sugary or processed food either.

Once the dental exam was done, Audino got a bowl which she filled with a warm and strong disinfectant and put on the floor. She instructed Locke to extend his front claws and put his paws into the liquid for at least ten seconds. The practice was intended to sterilize his claws of bacteria and cat scratch fever in the event he scratched another member of the guild; it was something Audino was explicitly told to do by the higher ups at the guild to minimize the impact of Locke's violence. The shinx relented with this, especially when he felt how much it stung when his paws were in it, but he was eventually coaxed into completing it.

Feeling embarrassed by having his claws get sterilized by Audino, Locke asked if he was done with the appointment. Instead of being told he was done like he desired, the shinx's ears and tail dropped low when Audino informed him that his majorly unclean fur was the other issue they needed to fix.

Outside the infirmary, Tamin leaned against a nearby wall as she waited for Locke to finish. She noted that he had been taking a longer period of time then what she had spent during her appointment. She didn't think much of it at first, but as minute after minute slid into the past, she began to grow suspicious of just what they were doing inside of that room. The quarantine-ready doors and walls coinciding with how quiet they were meant she was unable to eavesdrop on them without pressing her ear against the door; which she knew was far too suspicious to actually do.

But eventually, through patience rather than forceful investigation, the minccino saw the infimiry's tough door open again and the shinx emerge from it. However, he did not take the appearance he usually did. Much of his fur stood up and was slightly damp from not being fully dried off giving him a frivolous and unkempt look that appeared much differently then how he usually looked with his fur down. Moreover, his fur was pushed around both from a scrubbing brush and a towel done by Audino. He did smell notably better, though with the aroma of soap in the air and no longer the filthy smell of a pokemon who had gone through many mystery dungeons and nights in the wild without proper cleaning.

"Hey Locke, how did.. it go." Tamin said as she took notice of how Locke's fur was.

"...Hey Tamin," Locke said without answering her question.

"What took you so long in there?"

"Getting bathed in a sink and having my claws sterilized," Locke said.

"Oh, sorry to hear that," Tamin said, feeling some second-hand embarrassment. She visualized a full scene of Locke being in a metal sink, half-submerged, surrounded by white bubbles and Audino standing over him to scrub him as he had to stay still.

"Naw, it is what it is," Locke said as he did the closest thing to a shrug he could perform with his anatomy and standing on all-fours. "Anything you want to do right now?"

"Um, nothing that I can think of," Tamin said, surprised at how well he was taking it and how quickly his mood was brought up after enduring something humiliating. "I kind of just want to go back to being with myself, like I was before Rustin saw me and all this silliness occured."

"Sounds good. I'm-a go on a jog to see if that gets my fur back to normal," Locke said, not letting anything get him down, "cya."

"See you later,"

The shinx and the minccino separated again, both heading upstairs and doing what they said that would. Tamin got a chance to let out a large sigh of relief as she could finally be alone again without any pokemon breathing over her shoulder.

While the two left, Audino stayed in the infirmary. She had two papers reports, one for Locke and one for Tamin, that she wrote down to fill out every box and copy over all notes she could think of from the appointments. The time spent was reaching the tens of minutes instead of just a few loose minutes, but she calmly completed the reports.

Now with the task finished, Audino opened the infirmary door to see another pokemon waiting not far outside: it was Mawile.

"Hello Mawile. Came here already?"

"Yes. Let's go inside, it will be safer to discuss inside," she replied.

Audino stepped back as Mawile came in, shutting the door behind her. She walked over to the countertops and raised her paw out expectantly. Audino followed her over, grabbed the reports she had just filled out, and handed them to Mawile.

"Thank you, these will be useful," Mawile said as she grabbed them and turned to looking at the report on Locke.

"Some of that is sensitive information, be a bit careful with sharing it," Audino expressed.

"I understand your concerns, but these reports will mostly be kept secret. They will, however, be very useful for me as I try to construct a psychological profile on Locke," Mawile said while she read through the reports. "A one-on-one meeting can be really helpful for learning about how someone's mind works, and I don't think I could have done this if it weren't for this appointment and your questions."

Mawile leaned against the countertop and rested her back mouth over it to get more comfortable as she read the report made on the shinx. "Restraints used: none. Compliance: Fussy. Bodily hygiene: Poor (should be watched). Dental hygiene: Okay (likely from not consuming anything bad for teeth rather than taking care of them). Allergies: None known. Current health: Robust. Weight: Slightly below average. Diet: Appears fine. Bathroom habits: Normal. Electricity: Produces a normal amount, doesn't have electricity incontinence" were some of the details filled out on the report. Mawile focused much more on Audino's experience with the shinx more than the one with Tamin.

"Thank you, your contributions will be useful," Mawile said as she put down Locke's report and began reading through the one on Tamin.

"Weren't you assigned to do this for your psychological profile on Locke?" Audino questioned, confused as to why she was taking the minccino's report.

"About that, I have been told by Rustin that he has seen some strange behavior coming from her earlier today, so I have some curiosity in that area as well. It could very well be nothing, but all that means is that not much will be gained from the profile. But I do not believe anything particularly negative can arise from it."

"I- I think I see."

The steel fairy pokemon continued to scan over the reports with her eyes, eager to learn all about them as she could and commit them to memory.

**End of chapter 8.**


	9. Chore Day

_"Tamin! Where are you?"_

_"Yeah? What is it?"_

_"We've gotten a new mission request. Finding a runaway pokemon to return home._

_"Uh, i'll consider it-"_

_*knock*_

_"It's you. A minccino named Tamin who ran away from her parent's home. We have to get you back."_

_"Wait, no. I don't want to go back."_

_"A mission request is a mission request. It's our job. Come."_

_"I-I thought we were supposed to be family! Aren't we supposed to protect one another!?"_

_"You aren't old enough to be going off on your own yet. You shouldn't have come here in the first place. Now come!"_

_"Aren't I the only normal type you have? You need me!"_

_*knock*_

_"Not when you faint in the middle of missions. Get over here!"_

_"No! I don't want to!"_

_*knock*_

_L-let me go! I don't want to go back there! I can't"_

_*knock*_

_Sylveon- get you feelers off of me! Let me go! No!_

_*knock* _

_Locke! Please help me! I beg!_

_*knock* _

_Help! HELP!"_

_*knock* _

_*knock*_

_*knock*_

Tamin bursted awake. Heavy breathing, pulse racing, mind shaking, eyes darting across the room. The voices faded like the illusions they were and the sound of knocking on her door took their place.

"Tamin! Wake up!" Niot's voice pierced through the chamber door. Aggressive as the voice was, it calmed Tamin as she adjusted to what was actually happening.

She spent a moment to look around the room she was in, happy to see the chamber she had been designing was still there as she left it. Her sanctuary was yet unpunctured.

"I'm coming!" Tamin called out to let Niot know she was present and to cease his worries.

The minccino sat up and hopped down from the hammock she had rested in to land on all-fours on the wooden floor. She then walked across the room to the door. She calmly unlocked and opened the door, her body language not reflecting the horrifying nightmare she had just gone through. On the other side was the chatot patiently waiting.

"That's another guildmember awake," Niot said to himself. "Wait here for one moment."

Heeding to what the chatot said, Tamin stayed in place while Niot walked over to Locke's door and knocked on that as well.

"Locke! Wake up!" Niot yelled while he banged his talons against the wooden door.

"Urgh...I'm coming," Locke said, his voice having an uncharacteristic grogginess in it.

Far slower than what his usual speed was, the shinx forced himself out of his bed and walked over to the door within his personal chamber. Just as with Tamin, Locke's door was opened up and from it emerged Locke.

"Here," he said.

"Are you alright?" Tamin asked, beating Niot to the punch on being the first to speak up.

"Yeah," Locke responded, his words telling a different story than his tone and physique told. "I was just staying up a tad too late with Crystal.

"Mhm," Niot said, "Anyways, today is a chore day, and as you two are recent recruits, I'm here to inform you about that."

"What's that?" Locke said in a tired tone as his eyes weren't fully open and he had already begun sitting again to reduce the strain on his legs.

"Bi-weekly we have a chore day where our guildmembers take up tasks to upkeep the guildhouse, and make this be a good living space for all of our members," Niot explained. "You will be alleviated of your need to do a mission today, so long as you do your part in tidying the place up."

"That often?" Locke asked, still waking up.

"Be appreciative that we aren't in spring when pokemon are shedding their fur left and right."

"Well, actually some of us are right now," Tamin said nervously, her body language being far more giving than it usually was as she scratched the back of her head.

"Will the guild requests isn't while we doing chores today?" Locke said, beginning to wake up more which caused an ambiguity on if his almost illegible grammar was caused by his mind not fully being there, or if this was a usual slip up for him.

"Um, no," Niot said, trying to take a guess on what the shinx meant. "Generally we have our stronger explorers such as Armin and Max take the helm of continuing regular missions whilst our weaker guildmembers are the ones to do the chores. It ensured that the most skill and strong among us do not have their talents wasted."

"Now wait a second, if you be telling me to do chores, then are you sayin' I'm a weaker member here?" Locke said, almost fully awake as agitation replaced tiredness through getting his blood pressure higher.

"Yes," Niot said in a cold and judicial tone, "now what chore task would you like to do?"

"Eh, I think you'll get used to it," Dewott said as he stepped towards them and shrugged.

"Oh, hey Dewott!"

"Ahoy there, Locke!"

"How-zit goin'?"

"Great!" Locke said, fully awoken and energetic.

"So I was thinking about getting up on the roof and cleaning that today, and I'm thinking I'll be able to clean WAY more than you can," Dewott said, hopping around a bit with energy. "Think you can match?"

"I don't see a reason why we should turn this into a competition-" Tamin said before Locke's voice overcame hers.

"I'll take you up on that bet!" Locke proclaimed, "Niot, what's the hardest job we have for chores? I'll make sure I get more work done than he could dream of doing."

"Cleaning the toilets is always the task that guild members avoid doing the most, so I would say that."

"Got it!"

The shinx turned and sprinted off.

"Aye, let the game begin!" Dewott said before he turned and ran off as well.

Locke and Niot were left at the doors to the personal chambers, looking towards where the two that had run off had gone. After a few seconds, Tamin turned to the chatot with a shrug.

"Let boys be boys," the minccino said.

"Yeah… strange thing is that Dewott is within the range where he should just keep doing missions. He _wants_ to do this," Niot said, perplexed by this behavior.

"Well to be fair, I'd take housework over risking my life any day."

"Ah yes, that brings me back. Tamin, what tasks would you like to do today?"

"I suppose just dusting. That's what I'm best at."

"Excellent choice; taking advantage of your species' virtues," Niot complimented. "I would recommend starting with the upper story and working your way downwards."

"Understood."

Tamin split up from the scene as well, leaving Niot behind so that he could continue systematically going through the room doors of the diurnal guild members to awaken them.

Although Locke and Dewott wanted to get to their tasks as quickly as they could, they remembered that they still had to eat breakfast and ensure they were well fed for their tasks. As such, they reunited in the mess hall swiftly after initially splitting up. During their meal, the two of them grabbed and devoured food as a two-step process without any actions taken in-between those two steps. Food was forced against their guts at speeds that would cause choking to the inexperienced, both appeared to be defensive eating more so then actually preparing themselves for the day. As a reflection of what Locke and Dewott were like when they first met, Tamin found herself having to turn away from the seeming to be avatars of gluttony so that she herself could have the stomach to eat. The two competitive pokemon left the mess hall only a minute after they got there to rush to their declared tasks; the crumbs they left behind giving a newfound understanding as to why chore days were necessary.

Once Tamin had taken her time with her food, she calmly stepped away from the hall of consumption to walk to the upstairs room.

When she was there with the specific intent to find things to clean, her keen eyes suddenly could notice thousands- a seemingly endless amount of small mistakes that littered the guildhouse. It was almost overwhelming to Tamin when she took inventory of just how many things seemed off, it gave her a desire to retreat back to the sanctuary of her room. But she persevered and got to work with correcting the details. She dusted surfaces with her tail, rearranged decorations with her upper paws, and continued searching for imperfections with her eyes. Though bad memories of her being forced to do such activities for hours on end by her parents may have rung through her mind, the experience of cleaning actually proved cathartic to the minccino.

Above all else, Tamin focused herself on any cloth that was present to ensure it was properly folded and arranged. Whenever she saw it, she felt a compulsion to draw close to it and begin adjusting it to make it _oh so perfect_. It was an area where she didn't care about the amount of time she sunk into it. Tamin didn't spend any time considering whether this behavior would be odd or not, or if there was someone witnessing her that would consider it odd. But unbeknownst to her, there were indeed the eyes of a meowstic that got a few curious looks at her.

Once she was done with the upper floor, she moved downwards to the main floor. Shortly thereafter, she caught a glimpse of Espeon walking around the guildhouse. In that second where the minccino saw him, a flash of recollection surged through her mind. Tamin remembered the nightmare she had hours earlier, every gruesome detail of it invading her psyche at once like she relieved the scene of being forced out of the guild to be sent back to her family. With that fresh in her memory, she had a desire to ensure such an event could never transpire in reality.

"Hey, guildmaster?" Tamin said to catch his attention, speaking in titles to sound nicer.

"Yes, Tamin?" Espeon responded as he stopped and turned his head towards the minccino.

_"I'll have to be careful about how to ask about this. If I'm not allowed here because of my age and he finds out about that, then I'll get forced out of here,"_ Tamin thought to herself. _"I have to ask this in the least suspicious way possible."_

"There are just some questions I thought of that I wanted to ask," Tamin casually asked.

"I'll be happy to answer you then," he replied, "shoot."

"So, if a pokemon were to run away from their parents, would it be a guild mission to get them back home?" Tamin spoke with her words coming close to betraying her, but she maintained a smooth tongue throughout. Making it come out sounding like just simple curiosity.

Like her strategy had been with lying to Rustin, she believed the way the words were said were more important than the words themselves. She would rather roll with a poor choice of words than stutter while thinking of better words.

"Well, yeah. If the parents want their kid back and they're even giving some money for it, we'll get him back," Espeon explained. "It's a dangerous world out there. Especially for little kids."

"That's kinda what I assumed. But what if the kid doesn't comply and wants to go back? Would we force and drag her back?" Tamin asked to be more specific.

_"Wait, did I say 'her' when Espeon said 'them'? That was not a good choice of pronouns- No Tamin! don't overreact on this. He probably didn't notice, just stay cool,"_ Tamin thought to herself, all while retaining a normal face.

"I suppose it would depend on the case. I mean, if she's just lost- or being a rebellious brat who ran away because their parents grounded them- then we'd return them. But I would imagine there would be cases where we would let the child go or seek out a safer place to return them to."

"Ah, I see," Tamin said. The answer didn't quite give Tamin all she wanted to know, but she also knew that asking anymore follow up questions brought the risk of putting her into the realm of suspicioun.

"Any other questions?" Espeon asked.

"What are the plans for winter?" Tamin asked, doing whatever was the first question that came to mind, knowing that a series of questions would be more natural than a single off-hand question.

"We'll bunker up for the season and only do high importance missions that could result in death if left unattended. So it will mostly just be the strong members going out during that time," Espeon explained. "If you get too stir-crazy from being constantly indoors then we could find some easier missions for you. The cold will just have to be something you have to deal with during that time."

"If we don't have to do a mission today, are there other cases where we aren't required to do missions?" Tamin asked, this question being more genuine then the last.

"We provide 'mission leave' to certain guild members for many reasons, which means they are not required to do missions. It is permanently given to members who can provide something another service to the guild (like Audino's veterinary skills) or if they are not well, like from being sick. Among other reasons."

"Huh. I see," Tamin said, her mind entertaining the idea of being able to stay at the guild without doing dangerous missions. It schemed out the different ways she could theoretically obtain this 'mission leave' concept, from counting her non-combat skills she could use to contribute to the guild to calculating the odds of faking illness and getting away with it.

"Is that all you have to ask about?"

"Yes, I think that's all," Tamin said.

"Alright then. I'm happy to help," Espeon said with a slight nod, unsuspecting of anything that was off. "If you think of any more questions, then I will be available all day in guildmasters' office."

"Understood. Thank you."

"You are most certainly welcome."

Tamin walked away, with Espeon doing the same to head back to his office. _"Would Espeon consider me to be a 'brat' if he found out that I had run away from my family, and drag me back like in that dream?" _She wondered to herself as she returned to her cleaning work. _"I'm not quite sure. Best I just don't let him find out about my past. Far better to be safe then to be sorry."_

Tamin returned to her work with cleaning, now on the main floor. Not too long after her meeting with Espeon, Tamin took notice that some pokemon were retrieving food from the kitchen to the mess hall for the next meal. After seeing it, the minccino had to remind herself how much time had passed: it was already hours ahead from when she had first started with her house cleaning. She was so caught up in the activity that she had lost track of how fast time was slipping into the past behind her. After the initial moment of amazement on how fickle the flow of time could be, Tamin shifted her focus towards the mess hall so she could begin helping the setup for lunch.

Some minutes later, the buffet of food was set down on the wooden tables. Tamin sat herself down on one of the provided seats to begin eating. This time around she found some cinnamon sticks that were provided, so she was able to provide some form of added flavoring on her food by crushing some of those sticks over it.

Shortly after she began eating, Locke walked into the room on his light shinx paws to take a seat in the stool beside her. Tamin was typically one to appreciate the presence of a friend, but on that occasion, she would have rather kept her distance from the shinx as she didn't know where his paws had been. The shinx doubted that the almost wild pokemon would have been one to well wash his paws before he had come to lunch. Tamin's body leaned away and attempted to focus on her food.

However, Dewott came in and took place in the mess hall directly in front of Locke with a mienfoo beside him. As predictable as the result of putting baking soda and vinegar together is, the shinx and the water type pokemon began talking to discuss their past exploits. Or at the very least they could make mundane activities seem like grandiose feats.

"So, what have ya done today so far?" Dewott asked with enthusiasm.

"Got 'em all done so far even Niot be happy with the results!" Locke replied, a slight twinge of disgust was noticeable in his face and tone, but it was overpowered by the allure of competition to prove himself as the better pokemon.

"Ah, I see I have a worthy opponent," Dewott said as though he was faced with a divine challenge, "I thought you being a quadruped would hold you back or somefin like that, but you've impressed me."

"I ain't letting anything hold me back! Neither bonds or disabilities will bring me down. Bend me a hundred times, I'll never break," Locke responded, further enveloping himself in this persona of Dewott's challenger and equal.

After the short exchange, they went into a phase of eating down on their food and talking in a cycle. They discussed odd jokes and previous accomplishments as small bits of food and spittle flew out of their mouths. Both Tamin and the mienfoo awkwardly looked away from them, but also saw each other across the table. The fact that they were both doing the same thing was something they recognized and took note of.

"So, what have you done so far?" Locke asked.

"I'll have you know that I got the entire roof cleaned just in the mornin'," Dewott said pridefully.

"Impressive," Locke admitted after swallowing.

"So given that is a lot more surface area then what you cleaned, wouldn't that mean I won?" Dewott continued to boast with a sly smile.

"Hmm. Perhaps, although the things I cleaned would have been a lot messier," Locke replied.

"This kind of goes into the reasons why I don't think this makes sense as a competition," Tamin interjected, "there's no way to objectively measure who-"

"I'll just have to clean more stuff then!" Locke interrupted.

The shinx dove his teeth into the food in front of him one more time on that meal, then quickly turned his head while jumping off of the table. A piece of food was torn off with this, which Locke carried for later as one last morsel to stuff himself with. He built up speed to shift into a full one sprint to exit the mess hall.

"Don't think I'm giving up my lead!" Dewott said while boldly raising his fist into the air.

The water type pokemon excused himself from the table as well and ran out of the room so that he could search for things to clean. His departure was noticed by almost all.

"I...guess those two are gone now," Tamin said, slightly befuddled.

"Yeah. I don't fully understand Dewott sometimes," Mienfoo responded.

"Do you know him?" Tamin asked, glad she could get a calmer moment to converse in.

"He's my boyfriend," Mienfoo answered.

"Oh? Well, that must be chaotic," Tamin responded, confusion shifting to surprise.

"It can be hard to keep up with his antics sometimes, but he really is quite sweet," Mienfoo said. "I do often play along with the various competitions he comes up with."

"Well, good for you then," Tamin said.

"Yeah. He's not one to leave you with a dull moment. We have gotten quite strong while sparring with one another."

"Sounds like he's more of a dew-it type than a dew-wott type, eh?" Tamin joked.

"Heheheh," Mienfoo awkwardly made herself laugh at the pun to be polite, but the laughter wasn't genuine and grew fainter as it went on.

"I think I heard Niot say that he was strong enough to not be required to do the chores."

"Mhm. He and I are even. Well, measuring in how good we can do missions. Counting all the minor competitions he's held (of which he is quite good at counting) he's ahead. Though we both expect that to change once I evolve."

"So you're the hyper competitive type as well?"

"To an extent. I enjoy the simple things in life as well, and I do meditate somedays as well," Mienfoo explained. She took a moment to wipe crumbs off of her face with a napkin before continuing, "I am glad that shinx Locke joined the guild. Not that I want to get away from him, but I'm sure he can find a whole world of activities to do with him."

"You seem like a really good pokemon, I'll admit," Tamin said, appreciating her words as well as the high etiquette Mienfoo exercised.

"Thank you, I very much appreciate hearing that."

"We might have to do something together sometime."

"If I can find the time. Even with Locke distracting him, he can still be a little high maintenance," she gave a soft chuckle. "I could do some training exercises with you if you need them. Though I'm not sure my skills would transfer the best to you since we do not share a type."

"Perhaps. Though I don't exactly feel like doing training right now," Tamin responded.

Tamin and Mienfoo continued to stay in the mess hall for some time longer to have calm discussions, Locke had gone down into the basement in search of small things to clean. Lacking the ability to handle larger cleaning implements like a broom, he used a rag soaked with disinfectant. The hallway floors had already been catered to by larger pokemon before the shinx had gotten down there. The layout of the place had become even more maze-like as certain routes were blocked by a wet floor sign and a puddle; however such things were not a challenge for Locke's refined pathfinding skills.

He cleaned rooms indiscriminately; caring more that work was done so he had it as a card to brag against Dewott with more than making sure the work was done in the places where it was most needed. In his ventures into random room cleaning, Locke eventually found himself in a substandard office-like room with a desk, some blank papers, writing utensils, boxes and sealed cabinets. He had not checked the room's label before he entered it. Nevertheless, he caught to clean every surface in his limited reach. Once he was done, he took a short break to reflect on his work.

"Hmm. Alright, I've been cleaning for awhile now, I should check with Dewott again," Locke said to himself.

While he was walking to exit the room, he tripped on a bump in the carpet he didn't notice and fell down.

"The hell?" Locke muttered to himself as he got tripped up. He was able to catch himself from toppling down, but randomly tripping was still an abnormal event.

Turning around, Locke spotted a small, rectangular bump in the carpet of the room. The evidence was clear that this was the source of his tumbling.

"_What's this about?_" The shinx thought to himself as he went to investigate out of curiosity.

He began lifting the carpet up in the room, folding it over itself to be able to see the floor underneath it like the bump was a door handle and the carpet was a door. In doing so, he revealed a large trap door beneath it with a wooden board rotated over it to force it down. It was even complete with a circular handle to pull it open.

Confusion immediately set into the shinx's mind. The sense of his mind's map being thrown off was something he rarely experienced due to how refined his pathfinding skills were, but that was a moment where it did. He was already in the basement floor, so it could not have been an alternative entrance to the basement. He distinctly remembered Espeon saying nothing about any sort of second basement to the guild, yet a trapdoor downwards was there.

Locke thought that this might have been just another storage room, but that didn't stop the cat's curiosity. Too small to lift it by the handle, Locke went to the trapdoor's edge to make attempts to lift it up through that.

The trapdoor was heavy and Locke had trouble pulling it up. Due to him being relatively small, he grabbed the bottom of the trapdoor once it was slightly up and began pushing it upwards instead.

As the trapdoor came open, Locke was able to glimpse a staircase of stone descending downwards into a dark underground. The stairs went down farther than Locke could see. The more he opened the trapdoor up, the more light seeped into it and revealed more of the staircase. Yet it seemed that no matter how much he let in, the illumination could not reach the was pure grey stone with sharp edges. There was nothing on the walls or ceilings, just a descending staircase.

Locke continued to push the door open while focusing downwards. He tried to adjust his eyes to be seeing in darkness instead of the light so that his night vision might reveal the bottom, but before his pupils could fully enlarge, he began hearing footsteps outside of the room; footsteps that were coming closer.

In a moment's decision, Locke valued his safety and staying in the clear over his curiosity. He lightly let the trapdoor down, shifted the board back into its place and pushed the carpet on top of it. His soft paws and dexterity allowed him to silently and swiftly accomplish it. Afterwards, Locke turned around to leave the room.

As Locke opened the door to depart, he saw Sylveon facing directly towards him on the other side.

"Locke?" Sylveon asked while squinting to an extent.

"Yes?" the shinx replied.

"What were you doing?"

"Uh, cleaning some random rooms," Locke answered, not being able to keep his composure when hiding certain facts like Tamin could do. "It is chore day, after all."

"That's my office," Sylveon said while bringing his feelers up to point forwards.

"Oh, sorry. I did not realize," Locke spoke while his head dropped down a slight distance. By the tone of Sylveon's voice, he could tell it wasn't something he was supposed to do.

"It's alright, I suppose. I'll tell Espeon of this, but if you didn't know then you won't be punished for it," Sylveon said. "Although I am glad I saw you since there is something I need to talk to you about."

"What'd that be?" Locke asked.

"We have taken notice of your violent behaviors towards other guild members, and we have to ask that you cease that immediately," Sylveon said, being as straight-forward as possible. "Espeon has said that the pain of getting your claws sterilized will be punishment enough for what you've currently done, but we want to make it crystal clear that this behavior is not acceptable."

"Wait, is that what that was about?" Locke said, beginning to get a twinge of anger.

"Yes. We had Audino sterilize your claws so that you wouldn't give bacterial infections to a guild member if you attacked them in the future," he explained. "Half the reason we set up those appointments was to make sure you didn't make anyone else ill."

"What the heck? What in specific are you talking I have done anyways?" Locke said, anger increasing as grammatical skills decreased.

"You attacked Max while they were rescuing you-"

"I didn't know they were rescuing me at that point! I was in the middle of a fight against a bunch-o-wilds."

"You shocked the zorua Hunter on your first full day here-"

"He was disguising himself as Tamin and trying to trick me! He needed a lesson."

"You clawed at the back of Sebastien's neck later that day-"

"And apologized! And that was in the middle of a fight."

"And you have been reported as making a threat of violence towards Hunter yesterday-"

"He was disguising himself as me to trick Tamin!"

In frustration, Sylveon closed his eyes and put one of his feelers between his eyes to focus himself, trying to find the right words in him to say to the shinx.

"Look, I'm not the one who is making the calls here. If you have a problem, take that up with Espeon, Umbreon and Niot, they are the ones who made these decisions and told me to talk with you. I don't have a particular desire for this either, and you can believe me when I say that I don't have some kind of personal vendetta against you. I am just here to keep the guild together by making sure the rules are actually followed.

You can keep insisting you've done nothing wrong when you have a near daily pattern of violence, but the one you're harming with that is yourself. A single appointment and claw sterilization is all you've gotten now, but I highly doubt you're getting anymore warnings past this.

We have been taking of Hunter. He is a known trouble maker and I don't fault you for disliking him. But you are not to attack anyone else here again. Do you understand?"

The shinx was taken aback, unsure of how to respond to Sylveon's extended speech.

"Do you understand, Locke?" he repeated.

"Hmmph. Yes, I do," Locke said, looking into his eyes.

"Good," Sylveon said, tuning around shortly thereafter. "I sincerely hope this is the last time I will have to talk to you like this again."

The eeveelution walked away from Locke, leaving him behind. Once he was away, Locke turned around one more time to look at the space where the trapdoor was located before he exited the room and closed the door.

His mind wasn't distracted by thoughts of his violent actions for very long, and it returned to thinking about the trapdoor he had seen. While Locke walked back towards the foyer, the image of the seemingly endless, dark staircase still lingered in his head. He wondered what was below him. He painted the image of a dark, sprawling dungeon of stone just below his feet in his head. His thoughts strong enough that he tricked himself into hearing light echoes below his footsteps where there were none.

Later that day, Tamin had returned to cleaning the guildhouse after taking her share of food during lunch. Like before the meal, she had gotten rather carried away in seeking out every possible imperfection in the guildhouse that she was capable of fixing. Before too long, Tamin had begun to think of herself as the sole pokemon who was capable of righting the wrongs presented within the guildhouse, spiraling into an seemingly endless chain of cleaning that extended well beyond what her call of duty allowed. This crusade against uncleanliness eventually led her to the basement, where she took to the impossible task of attempting to right the many things that bothered her.

Like Locke had done before, she checked room after room for what she could tidy up. Unlike Locke, however, she was not able to accomplish this without losing her sense of location and avoiding getting lost. This led her to even stranger rooms, like bathrooms that were clearly started and never finished, freezer cellars plural, pits that were excavation areas to collect unknown substances, and many different storage rooms. For the moments where Tamin could stop focusing on just the messy spots, Tamin could appreciate the adventure-like feel the basement could occasionally give, like she had wandered into a pop-up book filled to the brim with environmental storytelling.

She was able to get a habit of seeing patterns between the rooms and common architectural traits, which might have been the only thing that kept the pop-up book-like feel from turning into a surreal trip into many wondrous different areas. At least, that consistency kept up until she eventually opened the door to one room that seemed eerily off.

On the other side of a door simply labelled 'lab', Tamin found an expansive room which contained several contraptions she could not recognize, active controlled chemical flames, some breakers and vials, shelves, and very well organized cabinets. Most of what one would associate with the room's label was present, and little of what one would associate with the floor above.

A desire to clean transformed into a desire to investigate. Tamin stepped further into the lab while leaving the door behind her open, getting closer to all the strange sights inside. Before too long, she was surrounded from all directions by laboratory and apothecary equipment and supplies. But what intrigued her the most were a line of glass containers that held glowing dust, each a different colored and labelled things such as "dark", "electric", "faerie", "fire", "flying", and all the other types. She stepped closer with a paw extended to take a look at the cases. But before the minccino could reach them, a female voice called out to her.

"Don't touch that!"

Stopping and turning, Tamin saw that Mawile had come into the room from the door she had left ajar. The suddenness of the voice had almost made her heart skip a beat.

"I promise I wasn't going to," Tamin announced while putting her paws up to show the palms and stepping back. Mawile fast approached while she had done this.

"Good," Mawile stated as she got up. "What are you here for anyways?"

"I was simply looking for rooms to clean," Tamin said, not having to lie but preparing herself to do so- just in case.

"What? The chores ceased hours ago. What are you still looking for places to clear for?"

"Hold on, what time is it?" Tamin said, her eyes searching for any clocks present.

"A quarter to three," she answered.

"It's been that long? Wow," Tamin said as she began to compute just how long she had truly been cleaning for.

"Yes. Even if we were supposed to be doing chores still, the first thing I did after breakfast was to sterilize this location. So you truly are lacking a reason to be here."

"Alright. But before I go, can I just ask what all of this stuff is?" Tamin said while she attempted to gesture all around. Although due to her location, it seemed she was gesturing primarily towards the glass storages of glowing dust.

"That? Those are type infused materials. Do you know what those are?" Mawile said, her desire to shoo Tamin away being overcome by her desire to educate another on the laboratory's contents.

"I do remember what I've learned, y-"

"Type infused materials are much of what they sound like: inanimate materials that are connected to the different types of pokemon. Their most potent form is the evolutionary stones that certain species (your's included) use to evolve into their next evolutionary stage, but there are weaker forms of the materials that can be put to other applications as well. The dust you see before you is obtained by grinding the materials down so we can contain them in a purer form, which we then use as the active ingredient in the flares brought along to every exhibition. Although flares are what the guild far and away does with the most using these type infused materials, there are many other applications as well. Both in granting inanimate objects the properties of certain types, and even rituals to infuse living things with the materials and well. Though I believe it would be more advisable if I spared the details of those rituals."

Tamin did not verbally respond to this long explanation after being interrupted. She only stared at Mawile with an annoyed expression and silence that communicated enough information.

"Sorry, I just like explaining things," Mawile awkwardly admitted.

"It's alright," Tamin replied. "So this place is where our flares are made?"

"Correct. That is the main form of labor carried out in the laboratory," Mawile explained. "Olivia the emolga is my main assistant and she handles most of the flares' final assembly. I carry out doing the precise measurements, making sure the materials don't have impurities, and the other tasks in this lab."

"Huh...interesting," Tamin said as it dawned on her what the etymology behind the word 'laboratory' actually was. "I didn't know Olivia did such a thing."

"She's a… unique craftsman, let's just say that. Her personality certainly brings challenges, but she is efficient enough as an assistant.

We always take careful inventory to make sure we don't run out of what's necessary and get made what we're requested to. Even if those requests can sometimes be peculiar," Mawile said as she shifted over the completed items stored inside of the lab's storages, until she pulled out one object that resembled the flares they had, but was significantly larger to the point of being unwieldy. "Like this, for example. This 'payload flare' was something Espeon told me to make, and I still don't know what his exact idea in mind was. It's got the force of over seven flares wrapped up in it, which would create such a burst that if activated it have your eardrums shot to the point of bleeding, leave behind so much dust that you'd get into a coughing fit and you'd see a flash even with your eyes closed. I guess it's supposed to be visible from kilometers away and have enhanced stunning ability, but this is just absurd."

"Yeah, that is odd I suppose," Tamin said, not fully knowing how to respond.

Tamin took another glance around the lab. On this additional check, she saw thin glass tanks with glowing and colorful fluids inside. The fluids were luminous and labelled with the pokemon types as well.

"What about those?" Tamin asked while pointing towards the tanks.

"Oh, those are type materials as well, just extracted into a liquid form. We can't grind those down into a dust for flares, obviously," Mawile explained while shifting to look towards them as well. "You should be particularly averse to handling those liquids, though. That's the stuff that potions are made out of."

"Potions?"

"Yes. While they can be powerful, they are incredibly unstable with methods to create predictable results yet to be found. We stick to traditional apothecary and prescriptions for a reason. The world of potions is a volatile one where it is a matter of when- not if- you inflict something rapturous on your body by dabbling in it."

"Uh, I understand. I had no desire to take potions, or any drug for that matter, anyways," Tamin explained.

"That is good to hear. Now if I might change the subject back to a former topic, can I further inquire as to how exactly you spent hours straight of cleaning?"

"I don't know, I guess I just like cleaning and got carried away," Tamin said with a shrug and once again preparing herself to tell lies if she needed to.

"So you really like cleaning?"

"Yes."

"Interesting. I have also been told you have been spotted folding cloth a lot, do you have any comments to say on that matter?"

"I just like folding cloth, it's kind of therapeutic. Is that abnormal?"

"Alright. And would you say that you personally feel a..._compulsion _towards this specific activity of folding cloth to make it perfect?"

"I guess. Not a word I personally would have used but I suppose it could apply."

"Hmm. Few more miscellaneous questions, but would you say that you have any fear of contamination or dirt, intolerance of uncertainty, need to have things orderly and symmetrical, or have any unwanted thoughts about aggression or taboo subjects?"

"Uh… yes, kind of, yes, and maybe. What are these questions even about?"

"Few more. Do you hold a strong desire to establish routines, to be constantly checking, and get reassurance."

"I suppose so, but is that not normal? I really don't get what you're asking all of this at all."

"Good to know, good. That should be all, you should be leaving now."

"Understandable," Tamin said, not wanting to incite any ill will by being respectful, "at the top of your head, do you know how to get back to the foyer from here?"

"Take a left as you leave, keep heading that way until you can't anymore, take a right, and then keep traveling down the hallway with your head turned to the left. You'll see the foyer soon enough."

"Thanks."

The minccino calmly turned and left the room as Mawile remained in the lab. Tamin closed the door behind her as she left, then began following the instructions to get back to the foyer.

_"What were those questions about? She's clearly trying to figure out something about me,"_ Tamin thought to herself as she walked through the basement. _"I just can't give them information on my past, they can't be pulling me back there. If she continues like this, I can just play her game and get information on her."_

Tamin made her way back to the commons of the guildhouse, finally ending her crusade of cleaning hours after the rest finished with the chores.

Above ground and outside of the building's wooden walls, Dewott laid down on a lawn chair with the shinx Locke beside him in a similar position on another chair. The competition was over, only rest remained for them.

"So, I was able to eat more food back on your first day here, and we did 'bout the same amount of cleaning, so I guess the score's two-to-one right now," Dewott said as he stared up at the clouds with his arms behind his back, his imagination running to think of the different shapes he saw in the clouds.

"I guess," Locke replied as he shifted to his side and looked at Dewott. "You're pretty good, I'd say."

"Why, of course I am. I told ya, I'm going to be the champion of this guild," Dewott said pridefully.

"I like you lots. We should do a mission together sometime soon," Locke said while arching his body to stretch around on the lawn chair.

"Yeah, we've definitely got to do somefin together like that. Let's try to make that happen tomorrow," the otter pokemon said while turning his head towards Locke, but still resting it on his arms.

"Hmm, okay. Do you know of any competitions we could do today? The light's still in the skies for that, and I think I need to settle the score."

"I know of some spots in town where we could do some parkour. Oh, or I can concoct some ultra-spicy foods in the kitchen with some fire seeds and other special ingredients. We can see who can go longer without resorting to some ice cold lemonade."

"Okay, that second option sounds really good. I'm a big fan of spicy food," Locke said, getting into an idle position again. "I'll always take a little bit of fire to go along with my folly. It's some of those inseparable pairs made for each other, you know? Peanut butter and jelly, purple and black, song and dance, foolishness n' flames."

"Now, are you sure with that? You are looking at a water type who has practiced this for a while. I'm not sure you have what it takes to knock me down."

"Haven't you ever heard that pride comes before the fall?"

"Exactly!"

The two pokemon shared a laugh with each other before settling down again, both of their moods still high.

"Man, I'm glad I have you to do this stuff with. Mienfoo would never do these kinds of food competitions with me," Dewott spoke once he was done with the chuckle.

"Oh, do you usually do your competitions with her?"

"Yeah, she's my girlfriend."

"Ah, nice. Crystal's my girlfriend, if you didn't know."

"Nice, good for ya."

"What kind of pokemon would you say Mienfoo is?"

"A very sweet one. She's got the same competitive spirit in her, but she's a lot calmer and more patient. Mienfoo practices self-discipline pretty well."

"So you're the same in some areas and the opposite in others?" Locke asked.

"Yep. In all the areas where it counts," Dewott said, smiling as he thought about her. "She's a scion that comes from a noble background, 'House of Splendor' is where her parents are from, they own the county south of here. Her mother wanted to keep her close to that lifestyle, but her father made sure she got disciplined and a liking for the simple things.

I'd say it worked out pretty well, she's open for adventure and trying out new things, I don't think anything about her is spoiled or messed up. Well, aside from what she eats."

"What do you mean?" Locke asked.

"I don't know what they did, but she's the pickiest eater I've ever seen. She can't even eat the guild's food and wastes a ton of money to get food in town. I could count the number of things she is willing to actually eat on my two paws. It's crazy because we've even gone to Audino to test her for allergies in case her body might just be rejecting it- but no- all the tests came up negative. They totally spoiled her tongue."

"Wow, that sounds annoying," Locke said. As he spoke, he recalled some occasions where he saw Mienfoo eating from a takeout box during a guild meal.

"Yeah… Oh well, I can tolerate that, she's my sweet thing nonetheless. You can't expect to find love if you can't be tolerant of some quirks like that."

"That's very true."

"Mhm. Now anyways, you ready to do that spicy food challenge?"

"Dang right I'm ready!" Locke said as he jumped up and got back down on his paws.

"Wonderful! I've waited so long to do this again!"

The two pokemon hopped off of their lawn chairs and ran back towards the guildhouse, their mouths were already beginning to salivate.

**End of chapter 9.**


	10. Electrifying Charm

Locke slowly woke up in his bed, stretching his body out to start the day off. Stretching himself out made his legs extend out of the limited size of his cat bed. While on previous days he stayed up late to spend time with Crystal the weavile into late hours and get less sleep as a consequence, it was on that night that he had spent the entirety of it within the still mostly barren confines of his room. Locke had delighted himself in every second sweet slumber he could get.

After the initial stretches and yawns, Locke had fully gotten himself awake again. However, he immediately got the feeling that not all was well. His instincts told him that something was just _off_. His hairs stood up just as he raised his guard so he could find what out of the status quo had been breached.

It didn't take long for him to figure out what was off and causing those feelings: he had woken up on his own accord rather than the sound of knocking on his door. While some might let that be enough to ease them, Locke only wondered what happened that made him wake up at by himself this time knocks always came early in the day, however since Locke had woke up on his own with the sun out, something must've happened. He figured out that something small must have happened that he noticed only subconsciously, and that caused it all.

Scanning the room with his eyes, he saw that on the desk he had gotten from Crystal was a sealed letter that was certainly not present when he had gotten to sleep. It rested diagonally on top, prompted up by the desks's back pen holder and was strategically placed so the seal was perfectly pointed towards the bed Locke was in.

The shinx got out of his bed and onto his four paws to walk directly to the letter. He briefly checked for traps out of habit before grabbing the letter. It was closed by a yellow wax seal resembling the electric type symbol that was applied very carefully. Locke wasted no time as he tore the letter open with his claws to find a piece of paper inside. He grabbed the paper to unfold it over the desk and began reading.

"To my beloved Locky;

It may have only been a few days since we last spoke, but those days have felt like an eternity to me. Last time we met, you told me things that weren't the nicest back at that restaurant. But I want you to know that I've chosen to forgive you for those things.

Now that some time has passed since then, I do hope this is the day where we can be together. The day where we can have a grand journey together start and blossom.

In the future, may you and I have an everlasting love. Being together, raising a nice family and having a happily ever after together.

Our happy times together can start any day, but I hope that today will be that day.

Signed - Olive the emolga."

"What in the actual hell is this?!" Locke said out loud as he set the letter back down.

Locke extended his claws and tore the letter up into small paper shards in anger. He didn't consider how this could have been destroying valuable evidence, Locke only sought to destroy the source of what made him mad. Once he was done with that, he looked at the desk again where he noticed that the individual drawers and sockets were also slightly ajar from how he had left them. His anger intensified a bit even more; the emolga had not only gotten into his room to leave a creepy letter, but also made an attempt to snoop through his belongings.

The shinx made a half-hearted attempt to get the paper shards into a trash bin before he moved towards his room door. Confusingly, the pin was still slid into place to prevent the door from opening, which made it seem as though the door had never been interacted with while he slept. The shinx briefly looked around any place in the room where the emolga could possibly still be hiding in case she was still in the room, and even looked up at the ceiling for her, but he saw no such place where she could have been. He even double checked if the window had any function to be opened, but there was no such function, so that possibility was eliminated..

"How...how did she get in and out of this room?" Locke wondered to himself, confusion adding onto his fear that the chamber was no longer a safe place for him to sleep.

Temporarily putting the mystery aside, Locke slid the pin to unlock the door, opened it and journeyed out into the greater guildhouse. The guildhouse appeared more red and orange than it did on other times as the sun hadn't yet been over the horizon long enough to appear yellow, giving it the appearance of dusk more than dawn had the shadows not been pointing in the opposite direction. It was far more desolate than what Locke normally saw as it was before Niot had begun waking up the diurnal pokemon, and even before Niot was even awake himself. The only sounds were from the few nocturnal pokemon within the guild, but that was ever so faint as they avoided creating too much noise and waking anyone up.

From there, Locke began his search for the emolga whilst planning out what he would say in his head. From gut feeling he knew she had to be awake at that moment.

It didn't take him very long to search, he needed only go to the east side of the guildhouse to see Olivia out in the field. She was facing away from the guildhouse and holding a crossbow which she used to fire practice shots at a crude target placed on a tree.

"...Another bullseye," Olivia muttered to herself as another bolt landed at the target's center, only millimeters away from various other bolts at that position. Over ten were landed on the target, in front of a field that was void of any missed shots.

The emolga turned the crossbow to face it upwards directly in front of her and have it set on the ground. She grabbed another sharp wood bolt from the quiver by her side, pulled down the crossbow's extremely tense strings until it clicked into place, and loaded it carefully. She then aimed it once again at the target and-

"Hey!" Locke shouted at Olivia as he sprinted towards her.

A sudden rush of emotion came through her as she realized it was Locke's voice. Her fingers twitched which made the weapon change angle and the trigger accidentally getting pushed. For the first time that day, she missed a shot.

_"Play it cool, remember the script you planned." _Olivia thought in her head as the bolt flew through the air.

"Oh, hey Locky! How did your night go, did you get a good night's sleep? Don't mind me, I was just doing some training by myself, I had no idea you would be up so early! Hehe," She said while a red blush began forming on her cheeks, almost making her face look like a pikachu's face.

"What the hell was that?" Locke asked, anger still present in his voice.

"Sorry, I missed with one of my shots because you surprised me," Olivia said as her blush intensified and she was already forced off of the script she had planned in her head.

"What? No, that's not what I was referring to at all," Locke said. "Okay- first of all- prove to me that you are not Hunter. Because I'm not getting up early and walking all the wait out here only to have to deal with another one of his dingus 'pranks' again."

"Here," Olivia said as she set the crossbow down, raised her paw up and channeled electricity through her paw so the energy was visible.

"Okay, seems legit. Now for the real question: what the hell was that letter you left in my room?"

"Oh! So you found my writing! Did you like it?"

"What?!"

"I want you to know I meant every word of what I said, and I'm willing to let bygones be bygones. Now if you want to, would you like to see my workshop? I made some stuff that I think you'll like quite a bit."

"No I did not like your writing, not at all!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. Is my prose still not very good? I have been trying my best to practice."

"No, like, y-you're not understanding what the problem here is," Locke said as his frustration was building.

"Wha-what's the problem?" Olivia said, concerned while slightly tilting her head, "If it's something physical I can repair it."

"The problem is you breaking into my room while I sleep!"

"Where's the problem in that? Boyfriends and girlfriends do that all the time," she said calmly.

"What the frick?"

From there, Locke spent several seconds stuttering non-words as he struggled to come up with something to say in this conversation that only escalated in absurdity.

"Okay, even assuming we were together you still have no right to go into my room! It's mine and absolutely no one else's! And mo' importantly, I ain't your boyfriend!"

"Oh that's fine, we'll just start our relationship today!" Olivia said while she smiled, put her paws together and her eyes twinkled. "I have so many places I want to take you out to! This can be remembered as the day two soulmates came together!"

"Even if I wanted to (which I don't) I couldn't be your boyfriend. I'm with Crystal," Locke said.

In a single second, the twinkle disappeared from the emolga's eyes and her enthusiastic spirit disappeared. A sound that could only be described as the noise of a heart shattering could have been audibly heard, though the far more likely possibility was that the sound was created by her electricity in some form.

"C-Crystal?" she sputtered out, "You're boyfriends… with… CRYSTAL!"

"Uh…" Locke said as he began walking backwards, keeping eye contact with her whilst trying to get away, "yes."

"...Would you be a dear and tell me what she has that I don't?" Olivia said while visibly jittering. "Or how that makes any sense?"

Fight-or-flight instincts began to take hold in Locke's mind as he continued to walk backwards. Immediately those became the only two possibilities he accepted due to how creepy the emolga was behaving. He had no doubt that he could defeat Olivia in a fight and his claws did become extended. But right before he leapt forward to attack, he remembered about Sylveon telling him to not attack any guild members again and from that had the realization that unless he were to kill Olivia, she would continue to pester him in the future.

"I'll pass," Locke said as he quickly turned around and sprinted away, back towards the guildhouse. He didn't look back, only went forward at full speed towards the closest entrance into the guildhouse.

The sprint both invoked feelings of deja vu in the shinx as a previous encounter with Olivia had ended the same way, but it also invoked feelings of helplessness while his eyes got faintly red. He felt like a coward for simply running away from the situation and knowing that he simply had to avoid Olivia instead of defeating her demoralized him. The feeling of not being allowed to fight her beared down on him more than pain did.

Without any thunderbolts being fired at him, Locke managed to skulk back inside of the building's interior. Without a moment to ponder and still guided purely by instincts, the shinx retraced his steps he had taken for that day to return to his chamber; the closest thing to a safe place that he had in building.

Locke shut the door with a slam and swiftly slid the pin in place to lock the door. For a brief moment he rested against the wall as his chest pumped, but he remembered that the emolga had somehow gotten into his room before while it was locked, so he was not safe yet.

He went over to the desk that Crystal had bought and got on the other side of it. The shinx supplanted his paws onto the ground and used his strength to push it across the floor and get it to block the door. After that he traveled to his chamber window to close the curtains, almost surprised that the emolga had not been peering in already. After that, he simply waited.

The feelings of helplessness only got worse from that point on, now he couldn't even leave his room without encountering someone he could not fight once again. He also gazed at the curtains, which made him realize he would likely have to keep them closed forever to ensure that Olivia never spied on him through it. Sylveon's commands repeated in his mind, and he cursed every word the eeveelution had said. He felt it was absolutely stupid and in the confines of that room he swore to himself that he would not let himself be bound up by such rules he deemed silly; just because he prided himself on being able to be bent without broken didn't mean he had to confine himself to helplessness. Alas, for that moment, Locke was still stuck within his chamber. He sat in his bed for comfort, but the rush of adrenaline he had was enough to prevent him from getting back to sleep.

After some time, Locke was able to hear a familiar sound reach his senses: it was knocking.

"Come out, Locke. I know you're awake," Niot said as he hit against the wooden door with his talons.

The shinx let out a sigh of relief when he heard those words spoken. "Coming," he announced.

Locke pushed the desk out of the door's way and went through it again. "I'm here, Niot."

"Good," he said. "I do know that you were awake earlier as people have mentioned hearing and seeing you running around the guildhouse a bit earlier. I have to politely ask that you refrain from doing that in the future as you could wake others up by doing that."

"Fine," Locke replied.

The shinx moved past the chatot, onto the mess hall. He went on to eat breakfast and positioned himself next to Crystal. While on previous days he talked and socialized, during that time he was silent and frequently looked around with vigilance that bordered on paranoia. Crystal even asked him if he was alright, but Locke assured her that all was okay. He didn't see the emolga at all during breakfast, just like on the day he dined out with Crystal and Tamin, Olivia seemed to just vanish suddenly. He was more interested in her stealth skills then any other skill she possessed or claimed to possess, but it was concerning to know that she of all pokemon was able to do that.

Breakfast ended without incident, and Locke stuck close to Crystal to hang out with her for hours longer. Locke spent his time explicitly with the weavile until she eventually went to bed, and then hanged out with Tamin once Crystal was asleep. He wished he could have gone with Dewott to have some fun with him, but found out that he had gone off on a mission right after breakfast. _"Just about my luck, I shoulda gone out with Dewott immediately,"_ Locke thought to himself. _"Oh well, I might as well stay because I'm morbidly curious on how this craziness goes. If my life's a comedy I might as well enjoy my front row seat."_

From the hours he spent with Tamin, Locke's guard gradually lowered as the time since he had last seen the emolga increased. Eventually, the meal bell rang to signal to all of those still awake and present that it had become lunch time. With the thoughts almost entirely gone from his head, the shinx sat down for that as well to begin eating another meal. But after only a minute, Locke began hearing a familiar voice in his ear as he sat alone.

"H-hey Locky, how's it going?" Olivia whispered directly into Locke's ear.

_"Oip! There's the crazy girl! I wondered how long it would take for her to show up again,"_ Locke thought as he continued to look forward and chew food with his mouth open. _"Just ignore her, Locke. Maybe she'll go away like that,"_

"You're pretty good at running, I like that about you. I-I like a lot of things about you," Olivia continued to whisper into the shinx's ear.

_"She doesn't seem to want to attack me, so I'm curious where this is going. At the very least I have a room full of witnesses,"_ Locke thought as he continued to ignore Olivia to focus on his food.

"I know you don't hate me, you're just scared. That's alright, I can assure you I'm good, I can assure you I'm much better than that weavile girl."

_"Huh, I probably should have made some bets with someone on how she would have acted. Maybe next time I see Dewott we can make some bets on specific things she says. That'd be fun to make some money on."_

"Your room is nice by the way. I don't think I've mentioned that to you yet," Olivia began to breathe more heavily as she whispered "Wanna go out tonight? I'll pay. We can do whatever you want, Locky. I'll be happy as long as I can do it with you. You're so cute…"

_"Okay, this is starting to get really, really weird. I should probably be getting out of here or retaliating soon,"_ Locke said as his spine began to straighten out and he slowed down his eating.

"There is nothing more in the world than to be with you. You and me, Locky and Olive. Together forever."

As Olivia finished saying those words, her mouth was only millimeters away from Locke's circular light blue ears. Her mouth opened and her moist tongue slowly came out of it. It made contact with the bottom of Locke's ear and she slowly dragged it upwards to lick his ear as it twitched in recoil.

"Alright, that's enough insanity for me!" Locke said as he finally pulled away from his food and sat back up, making Olivia flinch back and everyone else in the cafeteria turn their gaze towards him.

Without missing a beat, Locke jumped down from his stool and changed course towards the questboard room. Olivia was left in surprised shock for a moment- a moment which Locke would not squander.

The different members of the guild reacted different ways to the situation. Tamin had disturbed disgust marked on her face, Venasaur tried not to burst out laughing at Locke's expense, several there felt second-hand embarrassment, and the vulpix in the guild bobbed her head with a smile present as she was liking what she was seeing.

Froslass and a ludicolo were already present in the questboard room as the majority of the guild had been in the mess hall.

"That one good?" Froslass said as she pointed at one mission on the quest board, "Standard cove exploration."

"Whatever you're doing, I'm going with!" Locke said as he charged into the room.

"Uh, Locke? What are you here for?" Froslass asked in confusion.

"I need to get out on a mission right now!"

"Are you prepared?"

"Yes, I always keep a backpack ready for myself in the entryway," Locke said, almost pleading.

"Why do ya want to go so badly?" Ludicolo asked.

"Because I just need to get out of here!"

"Why?" Ludicolo inquired as a follow up question.

"Locky! Where are you going!" Olivia could be heard saying from another room.

"I haven't got time to explain, we need to go NOW!"

Not understanding his reasoning but understanding how distressed he was, Froslass ripped the paper off of the thumbtack board and the three ran off towards the entryway. Olivia tried to cut them off when she figured out what was going on, but Locke grabbed a backpack he hid under a bench and the three ran off, out of the guildhouse's main doors.

_"I've heard people say 'running from love' like it was some light hearted thing, but this is straight up threatening!"_ Locke thought to himself as he sprinted across the road in front of the guildhouse.

Olivia made a brief attempt to chase after them, but her chase attempt abruptly halted at the door as she put her feet down still and paused a single step away from getting outside. She simply waited there, staring out in the distance to watch them until they took a turn to get behind a building and break out of their line of sight. Afterwards, she only let out a deep sigh.

"There they are, off again…" Olivia said to herself. "Away from me once again… I'll just have to wait until he comes here again… waiting more… just as I've done before."

The emolga, though still having a burning desire, had a spirit which began to wane. She turned around and made a walk of shame through the guildhouse, going up the stairs, and returning to the recluse of her chamber.

She first passed the time by working on random woodworking projects in her workshop-esque room, her mind wandering to think about the various adventures Locke might have been going on as she left her developed reflexes be the only thing to make her keep up safety practices. But as her mind wandered, a metaphorical lightbulb lit off within it. Her face of sadness turned into a cunning smile.

Hours later, after many small fights and significantly more steps across the continent, Locke came back to the town and within the guildhouse's field of vision.

"It's good that we're almost back, that was quite… beguiling," Froslass muttered.

"I didn't think it was that bad. Pretty tame compared to some of the stuff I seen, to be frank," Locke replied.

"Of course you wouldn't consider it bad, you were the one who made it awful," Froslass retorted back.

"Hey!"

"You got lost from us not once but twice, went completely ferocious during battles, and almost hit me with a lightning bolt at one point," she explained.

"I didn't get lost, I knew where I was going, I was just heading off on me own. I can handle these dungeons myself without any help; I've done so probs a hundred times before,"

"This isn't how you work in a team, you have got to stop separating from us! And that doesn't excuse your blind ferocity!"

"Hey-hey-hey! Let's stop arguing now, bad vibes make for bad energy, and we don't want to be bringing that into the guild!" Ludicolo interrupted them, simply not wanting them to fight.

Froslass rolled her eyes as the three all walked back into the guildhouse's insides. All three of them showed proof of a completed mission, and claimed their share of the reward. They split up and Locke began walking back to his own room. But before he could make it fully out of the questboard room, he heard an all too familiar an expected voice call to him.

"HEYAAA!" Olivia called out while waving, "How'd the mission go, Locky?"

_"And here we go, my recursive nightmare has come back,"_ Locke thought to himself, _"I suppose if she's stuck to me like a joltick then I'll play along."_

"Hey Olive!" Locke said as he turned to greet the emolga, "Mission went well."

"That's great to here!" Olivia said as the sparkling returned to her eyes.

"Hey, are you good at making clocks?" Locke asked.

"I've made them a few times and I'd say I'm pretty good at it, why do you ask?"

"Oh, I just noticed how your behavior is quite like clockwork, so thought it just made sense."

"Wha?" Olivia said as starstruck joy turned to confusion.

Locke got a sly smile as he caught the emolga off-guard with a question. But immediately right after, he could sense a smell trying to enter his soul through his nostrils, the smell was appealing in an indescribable way and caused his mouth to begin salivating heavily. The smell's source was in front of him, and gave Locke an incredibly strong desire to rub his head against Olivia.

"Uh… Olivia?" Locke asked, saliva beginning to escape his mouth as he talked.

"Yes!" Olivia said with another rush of happiness coming to her.

"Did… did you rub catnip on yourself?" Locke said as she took a step backwards in hopes distance would help him resist the strangely overwhelming desire he had to rub himself on the scent's source.

"Of course I did! I read up on shinx and I knew you'd love it!" her eyes glittered once more. "I'd do anything to please my Locky!"

"You are absolutely crazy and- wait- anything?" Locke said as a lightbulb illuminated from within his cranium.

"Anything that I'm able to do! You can count on me!"

"If that's the case, could you get me a strawberry soda?"

"On it!"

Olivia turned around and ran away, heading off towards her own room and out of Locke sight.

"Huh… that actually got her to go away. Sweet!" Locke quietly said to himself.

Proud of his apparent victory, Locke turned around and continued his walk back to his own room. As he entered one of the outer hallways, he saw a familiar minccino in the hallway, who stepped in front of him and talked to him.

"Oh, Locke, do you have a minute?"

"What is it, Tamin?" he asked.

"I'd just like to walk and talk for a moment, is that okay?"

"Sure, but don't spend too long, I'm not sure how long I've got."

The pokemon turned around to face the same direction Locke did, but closer to the chamber doors. They both walked forward at a slow pace, side-by-side.

"So what did ya want to talk about?"

"I've heard the emolga here has been giving you some trouble,"

"Yeah, she's been giving me a lot of crap. But I managed to get her off of my tail for now," Locke said, glad he could simply vent as they continued to walk forward, getting closer to Locke's chamber.

"Good job. Maybe you could do something more to get rid of her next time? Like maybe using fake out tactics? I do the bare minimum to satisfy her and make it clear you're not giving me? Or maybe make yourself intentionally unappealing, like by using bad perfume."

"I don't know. I don't want to get violent with her but I have a feeling I will need to eventually," Locke admitted.

"Well, if you feel that way, alright. Anyways, I was thinking about going out with you to something in town, kind of like how we did with that restaurant after our first mission. What do you think?"

"That sounds like a relief. I'd like that after a day of dealing with Olivia and her-"

"I'M BACK!" Olivia's voice echoed down the hallway just as they had gotten to the door.

"Speak of the devil, godd-"

"I brought the soda you asked for," Olivia said as she moved her tail to the side to show she indeed had a red soda can held in it. She moved forward to Locke, more waddling than walking to avoid dropping the can or shaking it up too much.

"Huh, thanks I guess," Locke said with his voice raising in a way that made it sound as though he was asking a question.

Olivia got up to the shinx and brought her tail forward to move the can closer to him. Locke took a few steps forwards towards her, but did not reach for the can.

"So!- I was planning you and I head out into town for a date! We'll have an early supper!" she said, phrasing as a demand rather than a request.

"Ha! I can't do that because I've already got a plan to go out with Tamin tonight!"

"I would advise that you rethink that plan, mate," a voice different from Tamin's spoke from behind Locke.

The shinx's heart sank as he recognized what voice was speaking to him. Locke turned around and saw that it was not Tamin that was behind him; it was never Tamin that was behind him, it was Hunter the zorua that sat right there with a cursed smile on his face.

"Hunter?! W-what the hell are you doing here now!" Locke said with building rage.

The zorua did not respond verbally. He had positioned himself directly in front of the door to Locke's room, and he raised a single arm to press against the side of the door. The action blocked it away from Locke, and Hunter's devious smile remained on him.

As Locke saw Hunter do that, he felt the emolga place her paw on the back of his neck, lightly grabbing his scruff.

"You've had your fun with Tamin, you've had your fun with Crystal, and now you've even had your fun with Froslass. But it is my turn now," Olivia said with a shadow casted over her eyes.

Without even so much as an attempt at negotiation, Locke made a violent shove movement to force Olivia back. Immediately afterwards, he sprinted past her and towards the guild's entrance

Olivia stayed in the position she was in while Hunter stepped away and began running in the opposite direction Locke was towards the back of the guildhouse. As the shinx ran off, Olivia let out another deep sigh as she stood still, much alike how she had watched Locke depart from the guildhouse hours earlier.

Locke went straight forward, aiming to run to one of the front corners of the guildhouse to then turn it and run elsewhere. While he had adrenaline pumping, it was instinct rather than intelligent planning that guided the shinx.

But just as he was about to reach the turn, Locke made contact with some invisible barrier. Making contact did stretch the barrier several centimeters, which forced the shinx to a stop and pushed back into the position it was in. The barrier was composed of tight plastic wrap that stretched from wall to wall and layered several times over to give it toughness. While most eyes would have noticed the telltale signs of light reflecting off of the transparent meterial, it was almost completely invisible to the shinx's eyes.

"What in the world?" Locke said to himself as his momentum was forced to a stop and he shut his eyes.

"No no, you're not getting away from me this time," Olivia said while walking forward as a casual pace.

"When the hell was this a thing?" Locke asked, his tone still angry.

"What did you think I was up to when you were off on an adventure?" Olivia replied sternly, phrasing it as a question but serving it as an answer.

Locke's mostly feral brain had to quickly make a new plan to overcome this physical barrier. As he opened his eyes, he saw a direct route to one of the staircase rooms. While the barrier could not have extended more than a few meters up so that he could have jumped it and Locke's claws would have been sufficient in slashing through, the instinctual mind had already accepted it as an impassable route. Thus, Locke changed his route and sprinted to the small room holding a staircase.

As Locke reached that new room, he turned right once again with intent to get away by going up the stairs. But as he ascended up the staircase, his paws began slipping up on a slippery lubricant substance that coated the stairs. Locke attempted to keep his footing and run up, but there was no way for him to set his paws down and keep them still as more of the substance began getting stuck to his fur. Before he could fully react, all four of Locke's paws began tripping up. As he started tumbling back down the steps, he extended his claws and put them on the wood as a last ditch attempt to force himself to stop moving, but the attempt was for not as Locke tumbled all the way down to the bottom of the stairs.

"Nice try, Locky," Olivia said as she came closer to Locke's location, "We coated the stairs in lubricant so you wouldn't get out that way. Pretty clever, huh?"

Unwilling to let this singular failure bring him down, Locke continued to run away from the emolga, returning to his original route of getting to the foyer. At that point, his mind was seeing the guildhouse as some kind of madhouse after running into two seperate traps that hindered his movement forward. Knowing these sorts of traps could only be installed in confined areas and not in open fields, he turned to the left to head out of the front doors. This time he prepared himself for any seemingly invisible barriers or slicks, however, no such hindrance came to him. However, as he passed the threshold to the outside, a different event transpired.

"Hey Locke," Hunter said to him just as he stepped outside, casually sitting down just to the right of the shinx while not in any disguise.

It couldn't quite occur to him while his mind was still in that panicked state, but Hunter would have had to run at extraordinary speeds in order to get around the guildhouse and at that position by the time he reached that point. While not impossible to the point of making teleportation, illusions or doppelgangers be the only explanations, it did speak much about his skill and agility when Locke looked upon it in retrospect.

Still in the running mindset, Locke turned the opposite way and sprinted away from Hunter as fast as his four legs could carry him. He went down a dirt pathway, avoiding the town all together and running past the guild treehouse as well; he only went at maximum speed into the nearby forests.

_"I take back any time where I thought of this guild as boring, this is quite exhilarating, actually," _Locke thought to himself after a minute of running without any encounter as he looked back. _"I think I've lost them now. I can hang out in forest until nightfall, and then sneak back in to go with Crystal. If not, I have hours to come up with a better pl-_

Ah!_"_

His train of thought was swiftly derailed when the ground rose up from beneath him and pulled him into the air. A net was lifted up from under fallen leaves on the path- and with great surprise- forced Locke several meters into the air with his paws left to dangle.

Suddenly wrapped up in a net and hung up in the trees, he instinctively extended his claws and looked around. He quickly spotted a vulpix below him. The fire pokemon held the rope that pulled the net up in her mouth, and had her tails lightly wagging.

"Alright Oli! I caught him!" the vulpix said, her voice partially gargled by the rope in her mouth.

"What is going on?!" Locke shouted as he extended his claws and began to work on cutting the net fibers.

"Hunter and I got commissioned by Olivia to set up some traps. She _really_ likes you, so much that she dropped a decent amount of money on us for this," the vulpix explained.

As Locke continued working at cutting through the net to his freedom, Hunter and Olivia began running up to them from down the path.

"If that's the case, can I commission you to get a nuts emolga off of my back?" Locke said, moving onto more threads after getting one part cut through.

"Sure! Meet with us when we're not busy and you have the money," the vulpix replied.

It was at this time that Hunter and Olivia started to catch up to and get to where Locke was by running down the same gravel path. Hunter ran over to sit down next to the vulpix while Olivia approached Locke directly.

"Alright, listen!" Olivia aggressively said, "I've dealt with you running off on me long enough. Now that I have you trapped, you WILL go out with me tonight. You WILL give me a day between you and I."

"Okay! You know what, fine! If you're not going to leave me the hell alone, then I'll come with you on your st- your idea for a date."

The vulpix Yuki raised her left paw and Hunter raised his right paw, to which they proceeded to give each other a high-five action as their eyes continued to look at the caught shinx above them. Simultaneously, the anger faded from Olivia's face and the starstruck twinkling in her large eyes made a resurgence.

"I'm so glad you could finally come to your senses!" she cheered on. "Let him down."

Right as Locke finished cutting a hole for himself in the net, Yuki suddenly opened her mouth to let go of the rope that held the net in the air. Before he could squeeze through the hole, he plummeted down towards the hard ground and the fallen leaves that blanketed it.

"Hey! Softly!" Olivia said to the pranksters, showing more anger towards them then she had ever shown towards Locke.

The shinx stood up again, still inside of the net even with his paws on the ground. The emolga ran over to him and helped him get out of the net, so he ended up being able to exit through the hold he created anyways.

"Alright, I'm yours now, just don't do anything physical with me," Locke said while finally claiming freedom of movement. "What ya want to do?"

"We'll do a dinner date, let's start with finding a place to eat at!"

The emolga pinched down on Locke's fur and began walking in the direction of the town. Given his circumstances and promises, the shinx found himself helpless to do anything but follow along.

"Just for the record, it was incredibly fun to set all of this up: I'd go as far as to call it the best commission we've gotten this year," Hunter said. "We had to figure out how to lure you into a specific starting point to make a plan possible, and then every route you could have gone from that point. From plastic wrap to make certain routes blocked off and some classic slicks so you wouldn't get upstairs. It's almost a shame you didn't go into the treehouse, we had some lovely plans set up in there that you didn't get to see.

_Almost_. I would call this resolution quite exquisite. Anyways, our work here is done."

The zorua and the vulpix did not follow Locke and Olivia to town. The two walked beside the guild's estate, onto the brick roads of the settlement and under the pervasive shadows of clouds.

Olivia window shopped around as they stepped down the roads, gleefully looking into the glass windows and store signs to find the ideal location to bring Locke into. Locke only continued to follow in reluctant agreeance, the feelings of helplessness returning as he felt forced to play along simply to get Olivia to leave him alone. As they got further from the guild, Locke did seriously consider the possibility of fighting Olivia in the town's alleys when no others from the guild were around to witness it. He knew he could defeat her if he really tried; it wouldn't be hard as he had significantly more combat expertise and Olivia was part flying type, but he ultimately concluded the idea was not wise. Engaging in combat wasn't something he would do if he had time to contemplate the outcomes of the action, only what he would do at the height of emotions if it was instinct driving his actions in intelligence's place. Before he could come up with a superior plan, the emolga guiding him spoke again.

"Would you like to go there?" she asked while pointing towards a structure.

Locke turned to check, seeing a standard one story tall accessory store.

"Couldn't really care less," Locke said.

Olivia was slightly miffed by Locke's unenthusiastic response, but resisted that from letting it ruin her mood.

"Let's go in then!"

"Aight…"

The two electric types went inside, where Olivia forced them to begin a shopping spree to try out various accessories. At multiple points she found alternative scarfs that she insisted on Locke wearing, but he insisted that his purple bandana provided by the guild was fine. If it weren't for Olivia's blinding love for the shinx, Locke would not be able to convince her not to put unnecessary accessories on him. After a beguiling period of time of Olivia fawning over many baubles and Locke being in false agreeance as he made occasional dark humor quips, they had finally finished with only a slightly large bag of useless items that the emolga had bought. But just as Locke's hopes were finally getting brought up, they were squandered and dashed upon as Olivia walked just down the street into a clothing store.

Second time around in a store on this forced date was an entire order of magnitude worse than the last one. Not only did Olivia search for clothing that she thought looked cute on her and frequently asked for Locke opinion (to which he had to make shallow compliments, which she blindly bought) but she also forced the shinx to try various clothing on as well. Shirts, hats, skirts, and dresses alike; Locke begrudgingly wore each piece she took from the aisles in a vain attempt to please her. He hated the clothing, finding it itchy and feeling it limited his freedom with the bandana being more than enough, but Locke tested his patience by playing along. Partway through he had the unfortunate realization that the emolga would likely refuse to let him leave without wearing at least one of the pieces of apparel she was buying for him, he chose a thin plain shirt as what he deemed to be the least humiliating option for what to keep on. Any form of a fashion sense went over his mind. Even Olivia didn't actually like the clothing that much, finding the soft materials to be less appealing then the harder woods she worked with, but it was the time being spent with Locke that was like a dream to her. So she willingly let it slide.

They had spent an accumulated total of an hour and a half in the accessory and clothing store before they had finally left. Olivia proclaimed their next destination was to find a restaurant to partake in a dinner date at. The shinx couldn't help but let out a groan of relief, he still didn't enjoy the date but the promise of filling his stomach with nourishment was always appealing; and even more so when he had been constantly salivating due to the catnip Olivia had rubbed on herself.

It was a different restaurant from what they had previously gone to that Locke and Olivia went into, but Locke didn't care about the nuances between the stores. To him, all they were was spots to stuff his face at, indifferent from the guild's mess hall. Olivia signed themselves in and they took to seats at a small table. There was no more walking that needed to be done, no more window shopping and no more having to put on different clothing, just the two electric types sitting across from one another.

"I'm so glad you came along to this! I've been having so much fun today with you," Olivia said.

"Um, you're welcome," Locke said, not knowing fully how to respond.

"How have you been today?" she asked in sincerity.

"I've had better days," Locke said, still having an annoyed attitude.

"Oh, I'm oh-so sorry to hear that, I hope things get better for you,"

"Oh, thanks, actually," Locke said, surprised to hear her empathizing with him. "I've just not been enjoying how I feel forced around town."

"Sorry, but I just felt it was what I had to do. You ran away from me earlier to go on a mission," Olivia said, tones of genuine guilt in her voice.

"Huh, you're actually nicer than I thought you would be," Locke said while slightly shifting in his seat. "At least, a lot better than that zorua."

"Mhm, I completely agree. Don't worry, I won't be working with him anymore," she reassured, starting to get blushy from love again.

"Although I'm not all happy with the crazy stuff you've been putting me through, on today or other days," Locke said, trying to get an apology from her.

"Like what?"

"Well for starters, please don't just be randomly licking my ear. That's beyond weird, and honestly a little disturbing."

"I just can't help myself. You're so cute!"

"Right. Just- just don't do it again."

"I'll try my best. But no guarantees. Hehehe," she giggled to herself.

"Right…" Locke said, shifting in his chair again in discomfort, "I'm guessin' you've heard of my past at this point, your's?"

The emolga shrugged in place before any verbal answer was uttered from her mouth.

"Not much to talk about, in all honesty," Olivia explained humbly. "I grew up in the country in a neighboring county; single child with two emolga parents. I picked up woodworking at an early age, picked up exploring not much later. Pushed how far I could wander away from my home, and had to teach myself some combat skills as well. When I became old enough, coming to the guild was a natural decision."

"Well, that's still more of a story then what I've got. Maybe you could fill more than one page with it."

"Hmm, maybe," Olivia said, bobbing her head slightly to the side, "Either way, joining the guild was a breeze. Apparently their last electric type was a luxray that bit the dust right before I came along, so I was pretty well needed as the guild's sole electric type. They almost begged for me to join, hehehe.

But now that you're here, we can make a great duo!"

"A luxray? Could you tell me more about that?" Locke inquired, sparked into genuine curiosity.

"Eh, it doesn't really matter. She's long dead."

"No, I'm curious." Locke continued to speak.

Right after he said that, the waitress at the restaurant started putting plates on their table, delivering the food to them.

"Thanks!" Olivia said to the waitress before turning her head back to Locke, "Her name was 'Valence' and she apparently was K-I-A. But that's really all I know about her. Like I said, she passed away before I joined. You're going to have to ask someone like Espeon if you're curious."

"Oh. Thanks anyway." Locke responded as he turned to the plate of food placed in front of him.

He spent a moment thinking to himself, casually eating some of his food as he ignored Olivia for a bit to only pay attention to his own thoughts.

He scratched through the recesses of his memory. Searching for any shard of relocation on the name 'Valence'. As he thought deeply, he seemed to get deja vu with the name and it somehow being deep in the trenches of his ocean of memory.

But at the same time, Locke entertained the possibility that he might have just been forcing a false memory on himself. Since he wanted the name to have some meaning to him, he felt he might have forced it to have a meaning.

"So how's the food?" Olivia said, interrupting Locke's thoughts in the process.

"...It's good," Locke responded, his head neither looking towards Olivia nor his food, just out the window as he thought.

"Can I try some?"

Despite phrasing it as a question, Olivia leaned forward (slightly getting on top of the table) and started grabbing bits of Locke's food to eat. This action broke his train of thought away from the name.

"What're you doing?" Locke asked. He fully knew the answer to the question and instead said that as a way of pointing out the absurdity of her behavior.

"This is some good stuff," Olivia said while chewing, "You chose well."

"Uh, you have your own food," He said as he started lightly pushing her away with his right paw.

"Sorry," She said as she went back to her seat.

"_She's never going to change is she?_" Locke asked himself in his head, _"Craziness is timeless I suppose."_

A moment later, a bell chime from the restaurant's entrance ringed, indicating that the door was being opened. The two electric types turned their heads to the sound to see who it was, to which they saw a sylveon coming through with a stern expression. A bandana around his neck was proof enough that this was the same sylveon that they knew from the guild.

"Olivia?" he asked as he locked eyes with the emolga named.

"Uh, yes?" she asked, concerned.

"There was an extremely slippery lubricant that was put on one of the staircases, which has resulted in Fraxure getting badly hurt by falling down the stairs. Some eyewitnesses have reported you being the one who poured it on the stairs, so that is what I have come here for," Sylveon explained, his gaze remaining stern. "Olivia, did you cover those stairs with lubricant?"

A short flashback came through Olivia's head. Although she was helped by the two pranksters to set up the plan, the plastic wrap, the net and contingency plans to the scheme, she was the sole one to set up the stairs as she did while the other two stood back, with her even using substances from her own workshop.

"Uh-uh… yes," Olivia said as her cheeks blushed bright red for a different reason. "I'm so sorry! I promise it will never happen again!"

"I will make sure to tell Espeon that you apologized, but unfortunately with vandalism of guild property and indirectly causing harm to another guild member, I'm going to need you to come with me," Sylveon said as he stepped closer. "This isn't something where a slap on the wrist will suffice, bones have broken because of you."

"W-wait! I'm in the middle of a date! Can this wait until afterwards?" Olivia spoke as she began panicking, the consequences of her actions literally catching up with her.

"I'm sorry, but guildmasters' orders are that discipline is to be immediate for trespassers," Sylveon said as he got even closer and began extending his feelers out.

Olivia began panicking in place and sweating profusely, paradoxically trying to find a way to both escape the current situation with Sylveon and continue the current situation with Locke. In the midst of her panic, some part of her mind thought that running would lead to the best outcome, which led her to jumping onto the table followed by jumping into the air and attempting to glide past Sylveon with her emolga wings. The escape attempt was extremely brief as while in mid-air two of Sylveon's feelers reached over to Olivia and wrapped around her.

"We can do this the hard way if you so desire," Sylveon said as he grappled the emolga.

"Locky! Help me!" she called out as Sylveon began walking out of the restaurant with her wrapped up.

"Bye-bye, ya witch," Locke said with a malicious smile engraved on his face.

Just as she was being pulled out of the exit, Olivia glared back at Locke with an expression of true betrayal. While he was only able to see it for a second, it became permanently burned into his mind when he witnessed it. Even still, Locke enjoyed watching Olivia be taken away much in the same way one enjoys watching a theatre play, all from his dinner seat with food laid in front of him.

While the restaurant staff was left shocked by the scene that had just transpired in front of him, Locke's smile was retained. The allure of the free meal remained, and the shinx enjoyed every last bite of it. Even after he was done with his own meal, he ate some of what Olivia had left on her plate to both fill himself up further and to get the feeling of playing a power move.

He went back to the guildhouse with a walk of pride. For the first time that day, going all the way back to when he first woke up, he actually felt safe and free. So he delighted himself in every second of that newfound liberty.

Locke spent the next few hours to exercise that liberty away from the emolga. He jogged around, he made some jokes with Dewott, and he simply spent time being lazy to take a cat nap. Eventually, night fall came around to blanket the land with the darkness of a new moon, the clear constellations being the most discernible thing around the limited size of the guild's territory. In the day's final hours, Tamin found Locke and she started speaking to him.

"Are you alright there?" She asked.

"Yeah," Locke responded, "Crazy day, but it's over."

"And is everything between you and that emolga cleared?"

"Should be. Not one hundred percent sure though."

"Alright," Tamin said as she began leaning back against a wall, "I was in my room, reading a book when that stuff with Olivia, Hunter and that net broke out. So I got to hear all the madness unfold."

"Oh. Sorry."

"It wasn't your fault. In fact, I'm sorry I didn't do anything to intervene."

"Yeah. I really tried to tell her off but she just wouldn't leave me alone."

"She's a psycho. I understand.

Anyways, it's getting pretty late. I am heading to sleep. If you want to hang out with Crystal this would be a good time to do it."

"Actually, about that," Locke uttered, "I know this is a bit of an odd request, but I don't feel too safe in my own room knowing that Olivia found a way in while I slept. So is it okay if we do a little sleepover and I go with you in your room tonight?"

Tamin spent a moment of thought followed by a shrug before she said, "Sure. Let me just get my room ready for you."

"Thanks a lot."

"You're welcome. I am a light sleeper so no one will be able to sneak in on us."

The two headed over to Tamin's room. She went in alone into the room for a minute to do one last quick cleaning while Locke waited outside. Afterwards she called for Locke to come in.

Her room was extremely detailed with plenty of time put into it. The walls had a black and white checkered pattern of panels across the entirety of it. The floor was carpeted with black and red in a similar checkered pattern. A desk was set up with it having a cleared top and it's drawers perfectly sorted. It was also made clean with nothing scattered on the floor and what she had was stored somewhere.

A wooden pillar was in the room with two hammocks set up high off of the ground, hanged in-between the walls and the pillar.

"Wow. You've really put a lot of time into decorating this place." Locke said.

"Thanks." Tamin replied, "You like to spend your free time going on jogs or chatting around, and this is what I like to spend my free time on."

"That's nice," Locke replied as he continued to look around the room.

Tamin ran up to the wooden pillar in the room and climbed up it, hopping into one of the two hammocks that was perched up there.

"You sleep in a hammock?" Locke questioned.

"I just find them more comfy," Tamin answered while moving her shoulders upwards and lowering them back down shortly after.

"...That's two meters off of the ground." He pointed out.

"The height is nice," she said.

"Anyways, I hung up a spare hammock I had for you. Do you think you can climb up to it?"

"Not without scratching up the wood." Locke responded.

"Oh, let me put it a little lower than." Tamin said as she began getting out of her hammock.

"No wait. I think I can jump to it." Locke said as he got down and started preparing his leg muscles for a jump. He flicked his tail around while he made calculations.

"I don't think that's very safe. You could get hurt trying-"

Locke made his calculated jump and flew across the room. Tamin gripped the hammock she was in to avoid being knocked out of it. Miraculously, Locke landed directly in the center of the empty hammock. It shook around some, but he held on without falling.

"And you doubted me!" Locke said enthusiastically, now directly beside Tamin as their hammocks were on the same level.

Tamin continued to grip the cloth and stay silent for a few more moments until everything became completely still again.

"Excellent job," Tamin responded once things stabilized.

The two pokemon repositioned themselves in the hammocks to get comfortable. Then staying still as they began the slow process of getting to sleep.

"So what do you want to talk about?" Locke asked Tamin.

"Not sure," she said.

"Hmm… Oh, there is something I have been wondering about you," Locke said after pondering what they have told each other before for a spell to get a flash of recollection.

"What is it?"

"Back with that training mission we did when trying to join the guild, you told me you didn't want to talk about your parents, and just sorta dropped that subject. But I'm curious," Locke explained. "I mean, we've known each other for a little time now and we're in a private place."

The minccino paused for a moment, questioning her own trust and if she wanted to recall her past again to say it. After a few seconds, her decision was made.

"I didn't want to talk about my parents because they abused me," Tamin admitted, her words being far more somber than what was her norm. "They hit me, they yelled at me, they cut with a knife, they locked me up, they… I don't want to be forced to go back. I was told that parents should protect their kids, but that's always felt like a fairy tale to me."

"Oh…" Locke said, stunned out of words. "I'm- I'm sorry," the syllables sputtered out of his mouth.

"Mhm…" she said, the saddest form of confirming the shinx had ever heard. "I couldn't stay there any longer, I couldn't even bring myself to wait out the winter in that hell when it dawned on me just how wretched it was. I waited until midnight, took what little I could in a bag, snuck to a window, and I opened it to climb down from there. I walked and I just kept walking, the pitch black dark may be scary but it's sure a whole lot less scary than home is."

"Wow, I really feel bad for you… But hey, least that all was awhile ago, right?"

"It hasn't even been two weeks," Tamin said as her body found a way to shrink away even more.

"Oh…" Locke said in yet another moment of realization.

"But you're right, it is in my past. And I'm going to do my best to keep it that way."

"Well, that's good at least,"

Another moment of silence swept over the room and the two pokemon in hammocks, both lost in their minds to think of what to do.

"Oh, that reminds me of something else," Tamin said, "how did that nurse's appointment you had with Audino go?"

"I had to get bathed and get my claws sterilized (which was painful), but I'd still take that over today," he explained.

"Sterilized your claws?" Tamin asked, her mind starting to get pulled away from her past to be thinking of Locke's past instead.

"Yeah, they made me extend my front claws and dip it into this hot disinfectant stuff that really stung."

"Huh… they never did anything like that with me. I just had a normal appointment where she looked at me and asked some questions."

"Really?" Locke asked.

"Yeah."

"So they are treating me differently then they are treating you…"

"Hey, by chance did they make you take any form of medication during that?"

"No, she didn't do anythin' like that."

"Okay, that's good."

"Why's that?"

Tamin let out a sound of disgust as she recalled her past, "my parents forced me to take medication just to make me more submissive. They weren't for curing anything, I was perfectly well, it's just so they could force me to behave certain ways.

I learned to tuck them under my tongue and spit them out when I could. Had I not done that, I would not be here right now."

"Dang, the hell's their problem?" Locke said.

"Yeah… just don't take that if they give it to you in the future. I don't trust those at all."

"Gotcha," Locke said with a slight nod.

The two fell silent yet again, reflecting on various things in their head. They thought of each other's pasts and what they had to go through to get to where they were. From that they thought about their futures, where they would go as they obviously could not spend eternity with each other on those cloth hammocks. But try as they might to imagine, Locke's ideas on the future were as blurry as what he knew of his origins, and Tamin struggled to think of anything except the darkest outcomes possible.

"...What do you think you want to do with your life?" Locke asked, getting into deeper subjects than they normally do.

"To be honest, I want to work at this guild for a few more years and try to find myself here. I might raise my own family one day, but I'm not sure. Right now I'm just trying to survive."

"I 'spouse I'm in the same boat. Although I think I'd like to stay with the guild for my whole life."

"For me, I think it's cruel how short our lives are. So I definitely don't want to spend it all at one job."

"I'm just the opposite, you see. I think if our life is so short, then I should do whatever will allow me to explore the most of the world in that time."

"I guess I can see your point of view." Tamin said, neither agreeing with nor rejecting Locke's philosophy.

"So you said you wanted to have kids in your lifetime?" Locke asked, changing the subject.

"Still a maybe, I'd say.. I would take calmly raising a family over going on dangerous guild missions. (although I know a lot more on what _not_ _to_ do then what to do with that)."

"Who do you think you want to marry?"

"I don't know, not in love with anyone right now (and frankly, all the men in the guild just seem barbaric, uninteresting or already occupied). I don't think it matters that much since my kids will be minccino either way. I'd imagine you'd have to be a bit more careful on who you settle down with."

"To be honest, what I would love is to get a house in town one day and have some sneasel kids with Crystal."

"It's good to see you have plans." Tamin replied.

"What about the immediate future? Like tomorrow?"

"I dunno, I guess listen in on what the other guild members are talking about again. That's yet to prove disappointing."

"Again? Have you eavesdropped before?"

"Yeah," she said nonchalantly.

"Why do you like doing that?"

"Ignorance is never bliss. Knowing what others intentions are helps me be able to defend myself."

"But isn't that stepping into privacy? How would you feel if someone else eavesdropped on your secrets?"

"I don't know." Tamin said while she lightly shook her head side-to-side, "To be honest, if I wasn't eavesdropping on others, if I wasn't as perceptive to my surroundings as I am, if I didn't learn as much about people close to me as I did, I don't think I would have ran away from my home like I did.

So far, eavesdropping isn't just something interesting to me that I do for fun (although I will not deny that is a part of it). It is something that has helped me get to where I am today.

If it makes you feel better, I do keep almost all of what I hear to myself (especially more private things)."

"'Kay then."

"Hang on, there's something that I feel like I should tell you that I have been holding from you (and this would be a good place to do it)." Tamin said.

"Yeah?"

"I actually lied about how old I was. I'm three-and-a-half."

"Really?" Locke asked.

"Yeah… I was worried they would take me back to my parents if they just saw me as a 'lost kid', so I claimed to be older to avoid that."

"Huh…" Locke spent a moment taking in what she just said. He then asked, "How old are you in months?"

"I'm three years and ten months old." Tamin specified.

"I'm five and… I think three months, I don't really know."

"Do you not know exactly how old you are?"

"No. My past is really all a blur. I can't tell you much about it."

"Oh. That's kind of a shame."

"Yeah. I hope I'll be able to discover more about myself in the future though. But for now, I don't have much to say."

"Alright." Tamin said.

The two of them talked little after that. Both just trying to get to sleep.

Locke was kept up by his own thoughts. He kept thinking about the name Valence that Olivia mentioned back at the restaurant. And the more he thought about it, the more the name seemed familiar to him.

This was far from the first time Locke tried to deeply scratch into his memories. And like all other times he tried scratching into his mind, his cohesive memories only went back so far and was all him just going into mystery dungeons for food and money to survive. Memories of him doing that scratching back to what seemed like the very beginning.

However, he did have some earlier memories from before his memory became cohesive. From before he could consistently put things in long-term storage, he had random scenes in his head from before he entered mystery dungeons.

One memory in particular always stook out to him. One that all attempts to scratch through his memory ended with. A scene that was both vivid yet vague from before he was even half a year old. The scene of him in an old house, surrounded by roaring flames. His fur being extremely overheated as the sound of crackling and collapsing wood filled his ears. All while the smoke choked him, preventing proper breathing. His throat turned completely dry and the moment when he stopped sweating as heatstroke kicked in. A memory that he knew could not have been fabricated by his own mind.

It was this train of thought that troubled Locke before sleep inevitably overtook him.

**End of chapter 10.**


	11. Weaving Through the Whispers

With steady feet and ears perked up, Tamin walked through the interior of the wooden guildhouse. While her posture would make her appear as though she was simply pacing to get through thoughts in her mind, her true intentions were more cunning and hidden under a layer of altered language.

As she walked on her two grey paws, she carefully listened to the many conversations and words coming from the other guild members that were present. She could not help herself to simply stay away from eavesdropping for long; it was a hobby to the minccino, and being able to know about who she lived with to plan around made her feel safe. Such were skills she picked up out of necessity to survive when sharing a household with abusive parents, so she had not yet known an environment where she didn't need it. Tamin began at the upper floor, figuring she could work her way down from there. With the recently cleaned roof above her and the hand railings above the mess hall to her side it was not long before she got close to an active conversation. It was Armin the lucario, standing in a half open doorway as Max the arcanine walked up to him.

"Hey Armin,"

"What is it?" Armin said as he turned his head down the hall to look, having one foot inside of his room as he stopped to commune.

Tamin slowed her pace down to be near stationary, avoiding getting to close so they would not notice her as she listened intently.

"I was just wondering how you've been. I have checked up on you in a few days," the arcanine explained.

"Oh… I've been fine, thanks for asking," Armin replied in a down tone; one that would never be heard coming from the voice of a cheerful person. He then turned his head back towards the open door to go forward again, but couldn't get any farther before Max spoke again.

"I can tell that's not the case," he interjected.

"Look, I just want to do some drawing right now," he said in an exhausted tone.

"You can tell me what the problem is, you know that."

Armin paused at the doorway for a moment, seemingly frozen in place with one foot in the room and one paw on the frame. He was caught dead in the crossroads of indecision, unsure whether to respond to Max directly or fully enter his chamber, and ultimately accomplishing neither as the result of his indecision.

"Let me guess, you're still missing your home again?" Max inquired.

"...Yes," he admitted, still stationary in the doorframe.

"Armin, I might never fully be able to understand how you feel, but I understand what you're- wait," Max tried to reassure but stopped himself when he realized his words were contradictory with themselves. "Look, uh, just know it's not gonna be like this forever. I'm always going to be here for you, even when you feel down. Believe me."

He spent a second longer idle in the same space between the rooms. While he could tell that Max's words were crudely thought up on the spot, his mouth couldn't help but change into a smile.

"Thanks. It means a lot," Armin said as he stepped away from the door towards the arcanine. The homesickness from his voice was lessened, making the tone closer to what Tamin had heard from when Armin originally rescued her from the forest dungeon.

"No problem," Max said with a slight head nod.

Armin walked over to Max, leaving the door open. He kneeled down a small amount and wrapped his arms around the arcanine's neck to hug him. They were both silent, not even saying a whisper into the other's ear (which Tamin would have been able to hear).

In this moment of distraction, Tamin took the chance by peeking around to look at where they were. As the door was left open, she could look into it to see a room that far more resembled an art studio than a bedroom. Canvases of work in progress pencil drawers were directly across from the entrance, and she could see many completed drawings hung up as well as countless artwork supplies. The pictures were almost entirely of landscapes and cities Tamin did not recognize, with there being a few in color as well. More common than any completed drawing was scrunched up pieces of paper, whether stuffed into a trash bin or flooding a desk, there were countless papers of unfinished sketches that consumed the space of the room. One kind of drawing that Tamin noticed as being entirely absent were drawings of pokemon species. She could notice the corner of a cloth bed in the room, but that was the only visible evidence that this would be a room that someone lived in.

"I'm always here for ya, pal," Max said again.

"Thank, Max. I needed that," Armin said as he began to step away.

Armin went back to his room and Tamin tucked away to avoid being noticed. This time, the lucario fully enclosed himself in the confines of his chamber and shut the door.

"So, there's another artist in the guild in addition to Crystal, and Armin feels homesick. Interesting to note," the minccino thought to herself. "Max does seem like a good friend, so I do hope he makes his way back, wherever his home is."

Tamin casually walked forward again. She passed by Max but made sure her behavior was sufficiently nonchalant that the aranine would not suspect a thing.

The minccino descended down a floor shortly thereafter, using the staircases to start her way on the guildhouse's main floor. She continued along the outer walls as she knew full well the walls to the personal chambers were too thin to stop her large ears from hearing the guild members who spoke too loud for their own good. It was not too long she got down there that she began hearing voices again. Passing by the walls to the guildmaster office, she heard familiar voices eminatting from therein.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Espeon asked from behind his desk.

"I heard about someone named 'Valance' that Olivia told me about, so I was wondering if you knew anything about her," Locke was heard responding.

Intrigued by hearing her friend in a conversation, Tamin shifted herself to be closer to the office wall so she could eavesdrop better.

"Oh? Well, she used to be a member here- an excellent explorer- in fact," Espeon began going off of memory as he was partially surprised that Locke would bring that up. "She was a luxray that came here with her family- or what remained of it- a few years ago. Joined the guild to support her family and did her best with every mission she did. Even without formal combat training she got the hang of things quickly and it was clear that she was here to stay. But come two months later, she departed in the afternoon on a mission just like any other, and she… and she," Espeon's voice got more emotional, and with that emotion came sputtering, "...she was carried back to the guildhouse as a charred corpse."

"Oh…" Locke said, noticing how much it was affecting the guildmaster to recall the events.

"No, it's not your- it's okay for you to be asking," Espeon said, still emotional.

"I didn't know anyone had died here," Locke admitted, his head lowering as he couldn't help but feel guilt over making Espeon feel that way, though those smaller details were ones that Tamin couldn't detect purely through audio.

"The guild has been around for a few decades, and we've had a few members who took their scarves to the graves. Six to be exact, whether that'd be for old age or getting killed on the job.

I don't usually tell new members about them since it can scare them away, but- but I don't want them to just be forgotten. Every grave feels like a mistake I've made, and I can't just push that behind me. I'm… I'm not sure what to do, if there is even anything for those who have already passed and been given their funeral ceremonies…"

"I think I get it," Locke said. His mind tried to come up with a dark humor joke related to the subject to make a quip on, but decided against saying it as it would be disrespectful given Espeon's state.

"I wish I could tell you more about her, but I regret not talking more to her in the short time we had her. I remember she was quite brave, if having a bit of a short fuse, but I have trouble remembering, which I regret."

"Thanks for telling me what you could, I was just curious. Although it's said that curiosity killed- err- nevermind," Locke said, having to bite his tongue to stop himself from saying a poorly timed joke.

"You're welcome. I can show you her grave if you want to. And if you want to know more, her husband and a daughter of hers is still alive and they manage an ice cream shop in town, I can easily give you the directions for that."

"Nah, I think I'm good. I guess I was just curious because Olivia said she's a luxray," Locke said as he began to turn around.

"Understood. Have a great day, Locke," Espeon stated.

"You too!"

As Tamin heard the conversation come to a close, she stepped away from the wall and continued stepping forward.

_"So Locke's investigating… something, I guess,"_ Tamin pondered as she walked away. _"I guess now he's not just a shinx but a… shinx-stigator? Sh-investigator?... Investinx?_

_No, I don't even think that meets a loose definition of what a pun is."_

Slightly shaking her head to forcibly rid herself of those thoughts, Tamin continued walking around the main floor of the guild. Like a serpent constricting around their prey, she adopted the strategy of starting with the outer halls and wrapping around while working her ways to rooms closer to the center of the floor. Although she persisted with keen observation, the few exchanges she heard amounted to short small talk: miniscule in the grand scheme of things that could neither serve the minccino's knowledge nor interest.

After making a second trip around the main floor and gaining even less insight then the first try produced, Tamin sighed to herself as she understood what this meant. The other members must have been gathered in the lounge below. She briefly considered stopping the eavesdropping to just retreat to the solitude of her room, but that thought was dismissed as she decided to bite the bullet and check out the basement.

Descending down the staircase only served to remind her of how much she hated the underground floor. Uneven boards, unkempt quarters, and amounts of design inconsistency so vast that 'spades' would be too small of a unit of measurement to properly suffice. But as she expected, there were pokemon in the lounge, relaxing on the provided furniture.

She hopped onto an unused space on one sofa, leaned her head back, closed her eyes to avoid the details of the basement from annoying her, and let the various voices passively enter her ears. For minutes on end, it was more of just the same smalltalk that was of little note. But before her patience had expired, there was a feminine voice that caught Tamin's attention.

"What've you been up to as of late?" it asked.

It was not the words that caught Tamin's attention, but the familiarity of the voice. By the voice and the exact way it echoed and muffled on the basement walls, it sparked feelings of deja vu. Back when she had been eavesdropping on another day and heard a strange conversation between two individuals, this was one of the voices that she had heard. "Have you been handing notes to other people?" was the exact quote that suddenly came to Tamin's head as she heard that same exact voice.

"Nothing much," Hunter's voice replied. "I do need some downtime between my pranks. Both to let myself have the necessary time to scheme, and let guards be lowered."

"Masterful planning, if I do say so myself. Sorry that I don't assist you with your pranks more often," she said.

"Nah, it's alright," Hunter reassured.

"Ak-know-ledged."

As Tamin continued focusing to eavesdrop on them, she heard that the voices were growing more distant. The two were walking away, which in the domain made with solid walls of thick earth, would have been very troubling for someone seeking to listen in.

The minccino hopped down from the sofa she sat on and began following where she had heard the voice. She began stalking them, using her soft paws to avoid creating sounds, skill to remain in stealth, and controlling her body language to avoid looking suspicious. Following their voices down the many halls and sharp turns, her pursuit to discover what was going on was relentless.

"So I have to ask, what do you think of the new members at the guild, sis?" Hunter asked.

"They are certainly intriguing folk, those two," the feminine voice replied. "I know we're all aware of the shinx's anger issues (and I'm well aware of the mileage you're getting out of him), but I'm personally more interested in the minccino as of this moment."

"Yeah. I pulled one trick off on Tamin by disguising myself as Locke to fool her two days ago; but honestly, I'm liking her. I had some plans for more to do with her, but after that first encounter, I think I'm cancelling them."

"And can I inquire as to what way you 'like her'? Your usual criteria for liking others is based on the reaction potential they hold for your pranks, but if you're not wanting to prank her, then what emotions are these exactly?"

"Well, umm… you know," Hunter said, his voice cracking slightly. Although it was not stuttering that abruptly cut off, but did sound as the end of the sentence.

"Heheh, I think I do know," she replied, giggling in a manner halfway between what a child's giggles would sound like and what a sadist's would.

"Yeah…"

"As for me, I personally just think there's more to her. So I'm far more interested in digging that up then I am with the momentary emotions of wild pokemon."

"Makes sense,"

Tamin continued trying to silently and secretly stalk them as the half-siblings went deeper into the basement, but danger signals were flaring through her head that made her precise movements harder to control. They were talking about her and Locke, which isn't something she could react to in the same way as if they were talking about anyone else. Nevertheless, she did her best to continue. She knew Rustin was not around to stop her this time, so she was able to continue investigating to the limits of her own skills to solve what was going on with that eerie conversation that got stuck in her brain.

"What else do you want to talk about?" Hunter asked.

"Hmm… Not-ta-thing, I suppose. I considered doing one last supply run to buy the stuff for me and him before it started snowing, but I think I'll be fine heading outside in the winter."

"'Bout what I expected."

"You must be getting better at predicting me, if that's the case."

"You must be in need of stepping up your game, if that's the case."

"Hehe, there is wisdom in that. Anyways, can I ask what plans you have?"

"I'm working out my plans for what I think might just be my best prank yet. It'll cost a small fortune, but can you really put a price on infamy?"

"Oh? Well now you've got me more than intrigued," she said as she came to a stop, resting in a secluded side room.

The room they had gone into was a tight space, little more than a meter wide and with thick walls of unadulterated earth on all sides except the entrance. The dirt was perfect for both being too thick to let sound through and too soft to allow for sounds to echo off of it, making it an effective counterplay to any eavesdroppers.

Due to these hazardous acoustics, Tamin was forced to get closer to them in order to continue listening in.

"I think I would like to use your help for this, just a little bit. I hope that'll fit with your schedule."

"Do not fret, it'll be fine for me. Now go on," she reassured.

They naturally dropped their voices in addition to being in that secluded room that they had naturally walked to like it was second nature. Tamin was hugging the wall that led up to that room at that point, but even with her position and keen ears, it was still difficult to decipher the individual words. So she leaned in closer to them.

"Great. Your role won't be anything hard, just blocking off certain routes like we did with Olivia's plan. I'm still going to do the bulk of the work here.

Actually, on second thought, would you have an easier time purchasing all the stuff we might need for the contingencies?"

"Glad-ly. There's a good chance I have some of it in my room already."

The voices were still quiet, dropping in volume as they spoke further instead of gradually increasing in volume like a normal conversation would typically go. For this reason, the minccino tried to get just a tiny bit closer.

"Excellent, I have a good feeling about this now."

"And on what day are you planning this apparent magnum opus of yours to take place?"

"Tomorrow if we're lucky, this week if we're realistic."

"And against whom will it be?"

Tamin leaned closer.

"Why, our good ol' friend little Locky, of course~" Hunter said in a teasing tone.

At that point, Tamin leaned farther than she was able to, causing her to lose balance and trip up. While she was able to stop herself from completely tumbling onto the ground, it did cause her to hit against the hard ground of padded earth with her body weight close to the room entrance, which caused a sound to be produced.

As the sound echoed, Tamin was able to hear the conversation between the two half-siblings abruptly stop.

_"Shoot, they must have heard that,"_ Tamin thought to herself.

With a rush of fight or flight instincts that came in, the minccino chose the latter. She turned around, got on all-fours, and sprinted away from where she was back towards the lounge. For a minute she tried her best to navigate through the vexing halls, its details once again becoming infuriating for her. But she had not remembered the route she took to get there, and as she sprinted through it while stress filled her mind, it was not long before she had to accept the fact that had gotten herself lost in the halls.

She stopped behind a wall to stand up and rest, taking a chance to orientate herself to figure out what to do next.

"Well I really regret coming down here now," Tamin thought as she looked around. "Although those two are clearly up to something that's off. I need to tell Locke about this. If I can ever get back to him…"

Tamin continued to look around, forcing herself to look at the infuriatingly uneven details. But without even knowing so much as what direction north was, she was hopeless. It all looked identical to her, it was all just an endless labyrinth of inconsistent styles and unfinished walls.

Unable to gain any help from her sight, Tamin figured she would have to rely upon her trustworthy hearing instead. She prepared her large ears again and listened carefully once more for a voice, any voice, so that she could follow it back to places she knew. When she didn't hear them immediately, she began carefully walking around to search for more noises.

It took some time, and in that time her worry built up higher, but eventually she could identify the faint sounds of vocals speaking from the middle of a conversation.

"It sure sounds like you've been quite vigilant at your job," the voice said.

Tamin recognized the voice; it was that of Mawile. Tamin still remembered her from when she had met her in the lab. Tamin silently stepped closer to the voice and kept listening.

"Indeed. I can keep managing it, even with the burden that the new members are adding," Sylveon responded to Mawile. "Speaking of which, how are your psychological profiles going? I know you've been working on that one for Locke."

It was at this point that Tamin had begun taking interest in the conversation as well, so she stalked them as well in stealth while eavesdropping.

"Ah, yes. I am staying with the theory that he is instinct driven, no doubt conditioned from his years of being in mystery dungeons. I have heard him called a 'wild pokemon' just like the ones we see in mystery dungeons, but I believe that to be a misnomer. It is part of the story, but not the full story. I have read into multiple stories of attempts to domesticate those pokemon, and it doesn't match up. Those pokemon typically show a period of being feral after being removed from their habitats, but after that period they come to their senses and primarily show confusion until they can properly learn how civilization operates. Meanwhile, the shinx is showing something of a combination between those periods, both having feral tendencies but also an ability to socialize and certainly has intelligence (especially with the tactics people have said he has employed, such as holding his breath to sneak behind a wild pokemon in caverns). It simply doesn't line up with the known behavior of true wild pokemon.

In my professional opinion, what I believe happened was that he originally came from civilization, only to move into the constant mystery dungeon expeditions that he described. Those dungeons then influenced his growth in his childhood and teenage growth phases of his life. It would match with his behavior."

"I can tell you have been making great strides in your scrutinizing," Sylveon commented. "Espeon will definitely be proud."

"Thank you. I have also started one on Tamin the minccino, and that has led to some interesting deductions as well."

Tamin's eyes squinted in response to her seeing her own name be mentioned. This conversation was already seeming to take a similar route to the previous one she had eavesdropped in on.

"Oh? I wasn't aware of you doing anything with the minccino."

"I started recently. On the last chore day I was able to get a chance to speak, and got some insights with that."

Tamin went from squinting to her eyes widened when that was said. She didn't think she had said anything incriminating in that conversation, for she had kept her guard up and watched her tongue specifically for that.

"From what she answered my questions with and what Rustin told me he observed, I think there is a good chance she has mild O-C-D, or obsessive compulsive disorder. The largest piece of evidence towards this is her curious ritual of frequently folding cloth, but other things such as constant cleaning line up with that as well.

I'll need to see more if I can make a diagnosis in good faith, but that is the working theory."

"Good to know. Should we alter how we treat her in any way with this knowledge?"

"At this point, I don't believe we should do anything differently. Doing so might cause her to feel like a pariah."

"I will make sure Espeon knows about that. Oh- by the way- I just remembered, do you know what's going on with those red eyes people are saying they saw Locke have?"

"Yes, but I'll warn that the results can possibly seem anticlimactic. It seems to be a product of his species rather than his mental state, as some of the natural chemicals shinx have in their body for bioluminescence can be found within their eye fluids as well. That reaction gets triggered when he enters into a state where he feels endangered, and it stays until he calms down. It would stay that way if he doesn't actively try to control it. As for its red color, that's either due to high blood pressure, his diet, or a combination of the two.

What I can confirm it is not- however- is a curse. Despite what you might have been told by less educated members here."

"Makes sense. I never thought it was a curse personally."

"Mhm. I have actually put some research into that lead, checking what curses a ghost type pokemon or a ninetails are able to apply to pokemon and such. No surprise, none I have looked at have even a passing resemblance to Locke's condition.

I won't make an argument from ignorance as I have not studied every curse that is possible (as if that was even within my field of knowledge) I highly doubt that has anything to do with him."

"Figures. Any other updates to provide?"

"I'll give the rest to the guildmaster's directly, keeping the confidential safe from prying eyes and ears."

Sylveon gave a nod instead of a verbal response that Tamin was capable of hearing. They then continued walking through the halls towards the lounge.

As Tamin persisted in stalking them, she couldn't help but deeply consider the things they had said, focusing much more on what they said about her then to Locke. She questioned her own reality in a small existential crisis as she had never heard of any sort of disorder she had before; she had always assumed she was normal mentally, albeit more enlightened on the horrors the world possessed. But on the other hand, she couldn't exactly explain her desire to fold cloth as anything other than a random impulse she had to do and if she did have something like that, it would not be the first thing that her parents failed to inform or cater to her about. It made her temporarily forget about other thoughts as she focused on resolving that, also wondering if she was better off not hearing that conversation as well.

She managed to follow them to the lounge without detection, but she only got back to the familiar physically as her mind was elsewhere. She stopped trying to eavesdrop others and simply paced around in her own mind. Clocks ticked forward several minutes as she just pondered to herself on a mystery to solve.

But before any form of conclusion could have been reached, the ring-a-ding of a bell rang through the guildhouse, reaching the halls the minccino paced in and pierced into her awareness. Her thoughts were interrupted as she turned her body and head to face the sound's source.

_"Right, lunch," _Tamin thought.

She came to the meal and joined others there, eating the same foods she would any other day. At first her mind was preoccupied by the same questions, but the constant voices and sounds of chewing around her tempted her to focus on them. Before too long she had a change of mind, she decided it was better to distract herself from those thoughts.

The meal talk wasn't as interesting as the conversations before, but with the goal of just distracting herself, then random words mixed with sounds of consumption was sufficient enough for her. However, as Tamin listened around from her backless chair, another wave of deja vu suddenly swept over her. She wasn't sure what was triggering this at first, so in the conclusion that followed she narrowed her focus even further to find it. One conversation from one of the quieter pokemon triggered that feeling more as she focused in on it, so she continued listening to every word they said as the reason for the feeling was on the tip of her tongue. Just then, she had a spark of realization. The voice was the other voice that Tamin had heard in the strange conversation days ago, the one she tried to chase after before Rustin approached her. The vulpix Yuki was one of the voices, and this quiet voice during meal time was the second. With this realization, she looked with her eyes to see who the speaker was, and saw a male braixen as the culprit.

"Well well well, that's part of the mystery solved. So that conversation I heard was between Hunter's half-sister and this braixen," Tamin thought. "Although, that still doesn't explain what is going on between them.

From what I know, one is male, the other is female, and their species do have several similarities. So perhaps they're in a relationship? It's sure as hell an abusive one if that's the case. Then again, I still don't quite think that makes sense. I feel something else is going on here..."

Thinking about this mystery before her, in combination with the other discoveries she had come to learn that morning, it beckoned her imagination to consider the darkest possibilities. Her appetite was ruined so she stopped eating.

After lunch was finished, Locke ran out of the guildhouse with Dewott to no doubt get up to random hijinks in the name of competition, the room dispersed, and Tamin walked off while still recused within her own mind and unshared thoughts. She stepped towards her room, although was unable to fully get back to her room before she heard a voice call out to her that immediately snapped her mind back to reality.

"Hey Tamin!" Scampi said as she got closer.

"Oh, hey Scampi," Tamin spoke monotone as she turned around, awareness getting regained.

"How's things going for you!?"

Tamin had started to become slightly annoyed at Scampi constantly running up to her when she wanted to be alone. Something that had been happening consistantly for the last couple of days. Although she was not too bothered about it the first few times Scampi ran up to her, but her doing is constantly proved to be annoying to Tamin.

"Scampi?" Tamin said.

"Yes?"

"Can I ask why you like me so much?" Tamin asked. "Like, I don't get why you're coming to me right now. I wasn't doing anything."

"I was concerned about ya," Scampi answered.

"Concerned?" she questioned, speaking like an alien trying to grasp a human concept.

"Yee. You haven't- I haven't seen you been talking with anyone else for a little while, so I was worried about ya," Scampi explained as she shifted her hind legs to sit down on the carpet.

"Oh…" Tamin said, her mind wandering off again as she thought about this, realizing that having others concern for her was something she had scarcely seen before.

"Are you okay?" Scampi said while tilting her head to the side, noticing Tamin drift off.

"What? Oh, sorry. Yeah, I'm fine."

"That's great to hear! Anything you want to do now?"

"Uh, not sure."

"Oh C'mon now, you can't just stay cooped up all the time! You've got to step out of your shell a bit every now and then! I'm trying to help you out here."

"Is that what you want to do?" Tamin said, more defensive then she needed to be.

"Uh-huh! Tell ya what, there's an ice cream shop in town run by a white ninetails and a shinx, want to go there?" Scampi said while her tail wagged.

"No thanks, I think it's cold enough out already without ice cream."

"Well've you got any ideas then?" Scampi said, her talking getting so fast that words melded together.

"Not really, sorry. I was just planning on spending time by myself in my bedroom," Tamin said, gesturing with her paws to show she simply didn't know. "We could do a mission together."

"Mission, mission… Oh! That gives me an idea?"

"What is it?"

"We can do some training together!"

"I really haven't a clue on how to go about doing that," Tamin stated.

"Come along with me then! I know who can help!"

Without confirmation nor asking to make sure Tamin wanted to come along, Scampi turned around and ran off, with Tamin being obligated to follow.

Scampi brought her back into the mess hall. Inside of that central room, Mienfoo was still sitting down on one of the tables, having finished eating her takeout meal and was calmly cleaning her mouth with a napkin. Scampi ran up to the fighting type pokemon with Tamin in tow.

"Mienfoo! Hey Mienfoo!" The excited rockruff called out.

"Hmm? What is it?"

"Tamin and I want to do some training together! Can you help us?" she said as she came to a stop.

"Is that so now?"

"Well, it was her idea, not mine. But I'm coming along," Tamin said with a shrug.

"What do ya say?" Scampi asked again, tail still wagging.

"I can certainly help be your mentor, but what help I can provide is limited as you two are both different types than I," Mienfoo explained as she began to get out of her seat. "Then again, I could teach you the discipline and practice required to get better. But at that point, it will have to be your own journey to get better, up to you and you alone."

"Sure, sounds alright," Tamin responded casually to Mienfoo's sagely words. "Where should we do this?"

"I usually go outside for all of my exercises."

"Eh, it's a bit cold out today," Tamin said.

"Well the other option would be using one of the more open rooms in the basement."

"Outside it is then! Let's head out."

The three girls headed off into the guildhouse's backyard, where they began some basic training exercises. Tamin did try to retain focus during the process, but she was primarily in it just to be with Scampi, and her mind had a dozen different ideas. Her body might have practiced paw strikes, kicks, balancing, quick dodging and lifting its own body weight, but her mind was totally elsewhere; her mind thought about what she had eavesdropped on Armin and Max saying, what the vulpix Yuki was up to, what Hunter was possibly planning, Mawile's psychological profiles, her own neural state, and what it meant for others to be concerned about her and their reasons for doing so. Those ideas remained in her head: both in time and in location, for hours longer.

**End of chapter 11.**


	12. Magnum Opus

It was a day that began just like any other, a proper description need not be given. The guildhouse remained in just the same place it had for decades, Locke and Tamin had slept the nights separate in their own bedrooms, and their slumber was put to a close when a chatot knocked on the doors with his hard talons whilst calling out to them with his booming voice to get up. In those regards, the day was no different.

They both went on to breakfast immediately afterwards, which needless to say was normal as well. For Tamin the minccino in particular, she operated purely automatically as she followed the daily routine she was keen on forming in the guild. For Locke, it was much alike as he had no qualms with letting his instincts guide him. Both were still waking up.

Once they filled up with food; they split up. Locke went downstairs with a run to spend time in the lounge whilst Tamin took a slow walk to the outer halls where she planned to continue the eavesdropping that she had done the day prior. But unlike the prior day where she would at least be able to do her plans for a few minutes before someone broke her concentration, this time she wasn't even able to exit the mess hall before she heard the sigh-worthy noises of someone calling out to her from behind.

"Oi! Tamin!" Dewott's voice rang.

"Hmm? Yes?" Tamin said as she turned around to face the otter pokemon.

"I heard you did some training exercises with Mienfoo yesterday," he said as he came to a halt a few meters in front of the minccino.

"That's correct," Tamin spoke truthfully, not sure where Dewott was going.

"Arr, that's cool! I was just plannin' on leaving for a mission pretty soon, and wonderin' if you'd like to come," Dewott said, happy." Mienfoo is coming with me, and I could show you some of what I know as well.'

"Well, it's still early. I do my missions after lunch," Tamin explained calmly.

"Oh? Do you have somefin else planned to do right now?"

"Not necessarily," Tamin said.

"Then why wait?"

"Doing missions in the afternoon is just what I do."

"But why?" Dewott said, unintentionally sounding like a child as he was genuinely confused by Tamin's logic.

"It's just routine," she said as if it clarified everything.

"Look, I'm just not following. If you have nofin you're doing right now, then why wait? If you haven't even been here for a week then what's so important about a routine?"

"Well…" Tamin began saying before she found the words escaped her. Her desire to establish and adhere to a routine was purely from feelings and not any sort of logic, rendering it nigh impossible to put into actual words to justify them. "...I guess I could come along. I mean, I know you're a friend of Locke."

"Great! Let's start getting ready," Dewott said, glad to be able to work with Tamin.

"Should we bring Locke along with the team as well?" Tamin said.

"Nah, with you we've already got a full team with you on board. The mission's labeled to be fit for just a three man team."

"Fair enough."

"C'mon now, let's get ready, we're heading to some hills. I'm sure it'll be a great match for you since minccino are great climbers and the place has a lot of verticality."

"I'm with you."

Returning to that same automatic mindset of doing actions with little thought process, she followed Dewott as her eye line was about at the same vertical level as his tail. They grabbed their appropriately sized backpacks, met up with Mienfoo, each got a flare that matched their type's color, rummaged together what miscellaneous supplies they needed and walked off to town. All with Tamin silently following along.

Down in the basement, Locke spent his time sitting on the furniture while doing little more than looking around. He hoped Crystal, Dewott or Tamin might come to greet him, but was only disappointed to find that none of them came. Instead, the pokemon that were present kept their distance and did not sit next to him, for the stories of Locke hurting other guild members had spread among the community as fast as one would expect rumors in a closed setting like that to. The shinx did mildly sense the negative views, but not enough to flee from the situation. He considered saying something, but there was no one present that he was friends with and he had no material for which he could make a joke out of.

As he continued to sit in the lounge, his eyes were only half-open and his awareness took a drop down. He had been frequently staying up late so that he could be with his weavily girlfriend into the night, and that of sleep with an immovable wake up time had begun taking its toll on him.

As the slightly tired shinx remained in the lounge, the team of Tamin, Dewott and Mienfoo, were in town. They were passing through a marketplace to get any last items they would want to have for the mission. Most of the outdoor vendor stands had already been shut down due to the coldness outside with only the sellers who were robust against the low temperatures remaining active. For the guild members, that just meant having to spend additional time to dip in and out of indoor shops. Tamin wasn't particularly interested in shopping, with the rest of them not being terribly more interested either. She kept fostered to her own mind, with most of her time spent not looking at any shop merchandise but staring out into the distance while only she and Arceus knew what was going through her mind.

"Are you okay there?" Mienfoo asked, noticing Tamin's distantness as they left another storefront.

"Hmm?"

"You have been quiet and distant this entire time, I'm making sure you're okay."

"Oh. Yes, I'm fine."

"Now, you sure there?" Dewott asked, following up Mienfoo.

"Yes, do you have a problem?" Tamin said while defensively taking a step back from the two pokemon speaking to her that were taller than she was.

"Oh, no no no, we're just making sure everyfin's fine," Dewott reassured.

"I will admit, I haven't seen you talk, or socialize at all, very much. Most of the time you just seem to be silently pacing around while thinking," Mienfoo said.

"I just have a lot to think about," Tamin said, going with the narrative they were implying while avoiding any implication that she eavesdropped on others.

"What do you have to think about if you don't chat with others?" Mienfoo asked. "Forgive me for asking, but where do your ideas to ponder on come from?"

"The books I've read," Tamin continued to avoid any discussion of her eavesdropping. She began to lower her guard, feeling she didn't have to be as defensive.

"Well I don't see much use if you don't talk to others about it. When was the last time you initiated a conversation with someone?"

"Huh… I'm not actually sure about that, let me think."

The team began walking through the marketplace again, leaving Tamin in the back again to wallow while she pondered the question _"when was the last time I chose to talk to someone?"_ Those questions were added on to the other questions about herself that she had received from the day prior to consider.

Her disconnection was temporarily ignored as the team moved on. They decided they had all that they needed so that they could begin heading out of town. But not even a minute after Tamin went silent again, the distant look on her face turned to one of dread as she had an epiphany.

_"Oh crap,"_ she thought to herself, _"I never told or warned Locke about the stuff I heard Hunter say with pranking him."_

The conversation she had overheard rang through her mind again. She got the sinking feeling that something terrible was going to happen to him soon, something that she could have prevented if she had forewarned him.

"We need to turn back," Tamin told the team.

"What?" Dewott asked as he turned to face Tamin and the entire team stopped.

"I just remembered some important things that I need to tell others," Tamin said, being vague but urgency being very evident in her voice.

"Can it not wait until we finish the mission?" Mienfoo inquired.

"I don't think so," Tamin said, still speaking faster than what was typical of her in concern.

"What's so important about this matter?" Mienfoo asked as a follow up question.

"Look, I heard- I overheard a conversation yesterday that was Hunter talking about some kind of stuff he was planning on doing to Locke, and I realized- you made me remember that I never warned Locke about that."

"Really?" Dewott asked.

"Yes!" Tamin said with concern intensified, "They said they might be doing it tomorrow- which would be today. And I didn't catch all the details, but Hunter seemed proud of it and I think it's something big. I'm worried about him."

The three other pokemon in the team paused for a second as they looked down towards the minccino, each trying to figure out how to react.

"...Come. It'll only add a few minutes to our trip," Dewott said to break the silence while taking up the stern tone of a leader. Regardless of any doubts he had, Locke was his friend and he wouldn't stand idle while any potentially bad thing could befall upon him.

Tamin, Dewott, and Mienfoo had their objective temporarily shifted. They turned back in the direction of the guildhouse and ran through the town's roads to return.

While they were still in town, an oblivious Locke was still in the basement lounge. His head began dropping down and he rubbed his eyes with the top of his wrist to stay awake. At some points his body began leaning towards the edge of the furniture and falling asleep, but everytime that began Locke caught himself and forced a surge of energy out to stay awake.

He was considering going back to his own room to take a catnap before lunch, but just as that train of thought began its trip through the landscape of his sleep deprived brain, a strange scent came in to piece his nostrils and enter his cranium, causing that train to derail. It immediately heightened his senses and made him focus on it. It was similar to how the catnip Olivia used was, but not quite the same. It was modified to have a savory twinge to it, making it less of the smell of cut grass and more reminiscent of the satisfying aroma of recently caught game.

His whiskers frisked up as the smell touched his nose. He hopped down from the sofa he was on and began following where he could sense the smell coming from, following one's nose just as what the metaphor was originally made to refer to. The lounge and those in it were left behind as the shinx left to navigate through the basement's halls while frequently sniffing. The others in the lounge either weren't close enough to the scent to notice it or were not enticed by it enough to investigate.

Locke followed down the mineshaft-like hallway and made a turn out of it, his nose dominating his eyes or his sense of reason on what guided him the most as he continued turning down area after area. Curiously, he couldn't sense the aroma's source getting any closer to him.

As he began reaching the corner of the expansive basement, getting to a room with a sharp corner where the scent finally seemed to get closer to him, his large ears picked up its own stimuli.

"Why, hello there," a voice spoke.

Locke turned around to see an excadrill from the guild stepping into the room.

"Uh, hi?" Locke responded to him in a confused tone of voice.

The excadrill walked into a position that cornered Locke from where he was. Making it so if he tried to walk out, he would only get closer to the excadrill no matter which way he went. The shinx noticed this and his eyes squinted.

"So, do you like my work?" He stated.

"What do you mean?" Locke asked again, still keeping his guard up and beginning to arc his spine to enter a lunging stance.

"This basement. This whole place. I was the one to dig out almost all of it when the guild needed some more room. This place is my creation."

"Oh... that's kinda neat."

"Do you like it? Love it, perhaps?"

"I mean~... I'll take it over a mystery dungeon, but that's not saying much, not is it?" Locke stated. "Though given how these halls are set up I wouldn't be surprised if this place somehow became a mystery dungeon one day. However those places are created."

"Is that what you think now?" He said in a cold voice, articulated to be as threatening as possible.

"If I'm being honest now," Locke said while honing his stance further in accordance to how the others voice became more threatening.

"Oh… Well well well, that just won't be acceptable."

"Now just what the hay are you going on 'bout now?" Locke asked, electricity coming through his fur.

"You were never welcomed here, and if you're going to disrespect an artist's masterpiece, then that further confirms it," he said as he leaned in closer, showing his claw. "You know what this guild was established for? It was for culling wild pokemon left and right, making sure they don't taint this beautiful tapestry of a world or pull on any of its threads. Today, I shall uphold that duty, and take care of an uncultured one at that."

He quickly pulled his massive claws back and then slammed it forward. It was slightly to the left of Locke's center, so Locke quickly skidded to the right to evade it. As the claw went to the ground, yet did not make any damage on the infrastructure, Locke's eyes had made its full transition to red. His instincts screamed to him that he needed to fight for his life.

In retaliation, Locke jumped forward and attempted to slash at him with his claws. The attack was predicted and dodged by the excadrill. After dodging, he quickly stepped forward again while performing fury swipes. Yet the attacks were each sluggish and improperly aimed, so the shinx had no problem dancing on his four paws to move out of the attack arc each of them provided. Between each dodge, his fur surged with electricity more and more. As he was aware his lightning attacks would have no affect, he focused the energy into his joints to help them move around in but a twitch.

Just as the flurry of fury swipes was coming to an end, the attacker jumped backwards. Locke was prepared to make an aimed lunge at him, but before that move could be executed, the excadrill began running out of the room. Locke had begun the attack, but once his target began moving out of the way he slowed his movements to reduce how long he would be exposed after making the attack and preventing himself from awkwardly hitting the wall.

He continued to run away from Locke, turning down corridor after corridor. Locke wouldn't let him get away, so he chased in close pursuit just as he would chase pokemon in mystery dungeons.

He ran faster than Locke did, but that did not discourage him from chasing. Even though he was slowly getting away, Locke did his best to keep after.

After only fifteen seconds of sprinting, the two made it into the lounge area. Although some pokemon did hear their fighting and running, everyone was still surprised to see them enter. The image of an excadrill charging into the room with a shinx chasing after him and attacking him made everyone there jump.

Ignoring the reaction of the others (and even their presence) Locke continued to ferociously dive in and keep attacking the excadrill with his claws. With the excadrill prioritizing evasion over dodging.

"Help me!" The excadrill cried out.

"Stop it!" Leavanny said as she came towards them to try to intervene. Reaching out her arm to them.

Locke- still in the frenzy that he was- brought his claws over and slashed at leavanny's arm, seeing her as nothing more than another enemy in his way. Leavanny promptly recoiled her arm from the hit.

The room became more chaotic. Some screams were heard and most were running upstairs. A few more attempted to intervene and stop Locke, but he would just discharge electricity at them to fend them off, and hurt others by mistake when he did that as well.

Eventually, dodging inevitably failed. Locke landed a scratch on the excadrill. He landed a solid his at the nape and dove into his flesh.

When the blow was struck, purple bursted around and an illusion faded. It was revealed that it wasn't actually an excadrill, but rather the zorua Hunter that was the true pokemon behind it.

This didn't cause Locke to stop, it did quite the opposite. A different kind of savage hatred coursed through Locke. His reasoning for fighting shifted from survival to revenge in a heartbeat as things intensified for both him and Hunter. Despite the hatred flowing through him, Locke grinned widely. Because he knew he wasn't actually at the disadvantage in the fight he thought he was anymore.

With a yellow static moving through his fur, Locke surged with electricity that he turned against Hunter with vicious intent.

While all that was happening, Sylveon sprinted down the stairs to get himself to the lounge. He had heard all of the commotion going on and came right down, and Espeon wasn't far behind him.

It took less than a second for Sylveon to spot the fight. He saw Locke shocking Hunter with electricity and Hunter intentionally not fighting back to make himself seem more helpless and like the victim, though Sylveon could spot that Hunter was making a bluff by feigning helplessness.

Wasting no time, he ran toward them and threw her feelers at them. Wrapping two around Hunter's chest to pick him up and doing the same to raise Locke into the air.

Although Locke squirmed at first and heavily considered shocking Sylveon to break out of the grapple, however, the effects of the feelers took hold on him. His adrenaline, hatred and ferocity dissipated as his vision cleared. In real time Locke could feel him returning to what he once was as all cloudiness in him left and clarity was reached. The moment was entirely caused by the effect of Sylveon's feelers and was almost surreal to him.

Now thinking more rationally than perhaps he ever was, Locke looked around the room and evaluated what was actually happening. Spending this moment of clarity to observe the present and contemplate the events leading up to it.

Espeon had gotten grounded on the floor as well. Without time for explanation, the gem on Espeon's head glowed as he spotted Locke. His used gave the same glow as Espeon used hypnosis.

Without struggle, Locke's tiredness instantly returned to him and hit him heavily when he fell under Espeon's influence. Restrained, he only watched as his momany of perfect clarity faded away as his eyes slowly fell shut and his other senses faded as well. The last thing he saw before going out was Tamin running down the stairs to the lounge and looking directly at him. Seeing the minccino made Locke's eyes widen slightly for a minute as he wanted to focus on her, but that momentary surge of motivation was insufficient to stave off the effect of Espeon's hypnosis to put him to sleep.

He wasn't exactly sure how long he was out for. It was a deep sleep to him and he lost all sense of time during it. Only having serene dreams of wild vistas and phantasmagoria as his mind was disconnected from his body.

Eventually, his dreams reside and he had returned to consciousness again. His eyes slowly peaked open and he could see that he was in a small room, not even as large as his bedroom. It was almost entirely blank and perfectly cubic, the only things in there with him were Hunter the zorua and Sylveon. Hunter sat on his butt and had a muzzle strapped to his mouth while Sylveon sat in front of the only door out with a stern gaze. Momentarily he smiled at the sight of Hunter wearing a muzzle, but then he noticed that his apparel had changed as well as he was suddenly clad in a black and red harness.

"Wakey-wakey, Locke," Sylveon said with a cold voice.

Locke sat up again, getting up from the uncarpeted floor. He took another look around the room, but it was just perfectly white and smooth drywall all around with a single reinforced door that Sylveon was in front of. Instantly, the shinx could recognize that he was trapped.

"What happened?" Locke muttered out while turning his eyes back at Sylveon.

"You know full well what happened, Locke. We've already confirmed that you do not black out during those periods," Sylveon stated. "As you're now awake, allow me to begin. You have both done things that are strongly against the guild's rules for a continuous period of time, and by the decisions of Espeon, Umbreon, and Niot, will face just punishments."

Sylveon lifted his feelers to point towards Hunter while he shifted his head to directly at him as well.

"Starting with you, Hunter, as you have begun to make this routine. You have baited Locke into a secluded area by using a homemade mixture of catnip and chemicals that replicate the scent of blood with potency, intentionally harassed him to the point of provocation, and led him to a crowded area when you were fully aware of how ferocious he can be. Your actions would not have been acceptable as is, but the fact that you knew this would lead to others getting hurt makes this far more dire.

The punishment that was decided for you was that you are to remain in this room for the next forty-eight hours, and will only be taken out momentarily to use the bathroom.

"...Alright." Hunter said while unable to speak very loudly due to the muzzle around his mouth. His expression (although partly concealed) held minor disappointment for the situation he was in, but was mostly of him accepting the inevitable and an outcome he already knew was coming for him.

"Can you please tighten his muzzle so that he can't speak?" Locke asked.

"No. That is not a part of his punishment, and you are in no place to decide this at all," Sylveon replied.

"Mhm. Well, we've been through this before, but let's hear about the real show we came here to have now, shall we?" Hunter said, smug in spite of the muzzle placed on him.

Locke was taken aback by this response from the zorua, stunned that he would react not only casually but smugly in response to such a punishment. Any positive feelings Locke had drained from him as he looked back at Sylveon.

"As for you, Locke. Firstly, let it never be said that I did not warn you. Last chore day I made sure in no uncertain terms to tell you of what you have done before, a warning that unfortunately appears you did not heed. It was primarily Niot's decision on what your punishment is, so I am neither guilty of failing to warn you nor deciding what you deserve.

You have shown failure to control your instincts many times. You have attacked Max with a thunderbolt as he was rescuing from you, attacked Sebastien during a fight, made threats of violence towards Hunter on an earlier date, and today attacked several pokemon. In addition to that, you have also completely abandoned your team during missions, most notably during the test mission where you completely ran away from Tamin and Niot. Despite it being only a week that we've known you, your behavior has been deemed horrible, to say the least. So because of your lack of self-control, it's been decided more control will be put on you."

"Where the heck are you going with all of this?" Locke asked, not totally following Sylveon.

"Oooh~ here it comes," Hunter interjected.

"See that harness you're wearing?" He said while pointing towards Locke with his feelers.

"This one you put on me while I was forced asleep?" Locke responded while looking down at the black and red harness again.

"That will serve both as your punishment and how you will be better kept under control. Until further notice, you are going to be required to wear it at all times. The higher-ups in the guild (me, Espeon, Umbreon, and Niot) or whoever you're going on a mission with may attach a leash to the harness' clip if they so desire. You have to follow whoever leads you and you are not allowed to take it off yourself. This will not circumvent your choices on what missions you take or how you spend your money and such, but will allow us to actually control your wild behavior and stop you from getting lost."

"Wait, what?!" Locke objected.

"If you have issues with this, you can take that up with Espeon or Niot, as it was their decision for it, influenced by a psychological profile made on you," Sylveon said, unbreaking in his sternness. "But make no mistake, you have more than pushed the rules of this guild in the short amount of time you have been here, and these are the consequences for your actions."

"But this is absurd! You're putting me in a harness and a leash, really?"

"Have I stuttered?"

"Y'know, clawing at the neck of the guildmaster's girlfriend probably wasn't the best move on your part," Hunter spoke. "Man, hindsight really is a harsh mistress, ain't it?"

"Oh will you shut up-"

"Enough!" Sylveon interjected, "Locke, do you have any questions about this?"

"Don't you think this is humiliating?"

"The choice was apparently to do this to help put your unacceptable ferocity under control or to kick you out of the guild. After what you have done today they concluded some action was needed, and they decided against throwing you out just before winter hit us.

If this does humiliate you, then let that give you incentive to improve your behavior."

"So you honestly think I should just be dragged on a leash during missions?!" Locke said while starting to get legitimately angry.

"That decision will be left up to your teammates."

"But how do you think what happened this day will change just because I am in a harness? Are you going to have me on a leash all the time?"

"I can only blame Hunter so much for what you've just done (hence the punishment I gave him). You are at fault for your numerous incidents. So this is intended to directly help in missions to control you better and indirectly help inside the guildhouse by making you learn to not go into more ferocious. Being immediately leashed and pulled around when your teammates see you doing something bad is great conditioning to make someone change.

As for avoiding something like this specific incident in the future, just try better to control yourself and not freak out. I'd recommend staying near a friend as much as you can, but I'm not going to force you to do that."

"There has to be a better solution then this."

"Then let this serve as an incentive to find that better solution."

"...You're really doing this?" Locke asked, he stopped arguing and went into a tone of sadness, "Don't you think this is a little… embarrassing?"

"I would agree with you on that. It's a shame that you didn't leave the guildmasters or Niot with much better of an option."

Locke was left speechless, knowing not how to argue further or how to accept these demands being laid out in front of him. He turned to look at Hunter, who was grinning as wildly as the muzzle would allow, more than satisfied to see his plans being executed exactly as he hoped to.

"Anyways, I believe all the new orders have been explained, you and I can leave from this room now," Sylveon spoke.

He moved two of his feelers again to open up his satchel and delve inside. From inside of the satchel, he pulled out a leash and brought it up. Sylveon brought the leash towards Locke, which made him step back in reflex.

"Still," Sylveon gave as a one-word command to the shinx.

Mind still spinning around, the shinx stopped for a second. Sylveon clipped the leash onto Locke's harness, and it was at that time where Hunter's grinning turned to audible giggling. Once the leash was on, Sylveon yanked on it to force Locke to step forward. He sat up and got out of the way of the room's singular door so that Locke could face it.

The shinx's head and tail were both dropping low and he blushed out of embarrassment. It was at that moment that he actually did not want to leave the blank room anymore, simply because he didn't want anyone else to see him when he was clad in a harness and hooked onto a leash like a pet.

Ignoring Locke's emotions, Sylveon grabbed the door's high-up handle with his feelers and pulled the door open. Instead of looking at Locke, Sylveon instead had his eyes locked on Hunter to make sure the zorua didn't make a run for it.

The door was pushed open and the two stepped out, Locke still being pulled on the lead. What was on the other side of the door was revealed, it was a typical basement hall with the same unfinished walls. But standing just outside of the door in a semicircle were Tamin, Dewott, and Mienfoo, each of them having come to the room to see what would happen to Locke after he was put to sleep. Each of the four were stunned and brought back by the sight before them. In particular, Locke's and Tamin's eyes met each others, Locke giving the manifestation of someone who is being more humiliated then they had ever been before and Tamin showing absolute empathy for another pokemon. They all imagined the many implications this massive change held and the sudden loss of freedom the shinx faced.

**End of chapter 12.**


	13. Led

Locke still stood beside Sylveon and in front of the team of four, humiliation coming over him like storm clouds blotching all the sunlight out from the land. He started by looking directly at Tamin's eyes, but as his cheeks turned red from the situation, he forced his head to look away and towards the ground. Pain to the body was something he was well acquainted with just as someone is acquainted with their home, but embarrassment and pain to one's feelings was something foreign to him with his life as a rogue explorer. As for the others in the room, a cocktail of emotions was shared among them: confusion, second-hand embarrassment, empathy, but the feeling that this was inevitable given the shinx's history was also another ingredient stirred into that emotion cocktail.

"Would you care to explain to us what you're doing?" Mienfoo asked as she stepped forward towards Locke and Sylveon.

"Niot and I will be explaining the exact specificities to everyone with one-on-one meetings, since that would be far easier than attempting to tell it to the chaos of a crowd," Sylveon said to her. "But know the harness is staying on him for the time being."

Mienfoo did not wish to argue further, she knew there were arguments that could not be won, and that could occur with people following the orders of others just as it could occur with fools. Instead, she made a swift motion with her arm and paw at Sylveon to snatch the handle of the leash out of his fingers. She did so with such dexterity and speed it could not easily be followed by the eye and Sylveon was left momentarily puzzled by what had just transpired as the leash swapped holders, but Tamin was able to catch it and was left with genuine interest by such a feat in dexterity. Locke was slightly happier to have the leash being held by someone he could better trust, despite the fact that he was literally hooked on a leash.

Sylveon and Mienfoo held a brief and silent standoff as they looked into each other's eyes with stern gazes, but it was only a second long and certainly not a case where that one second somehow felt like minutes.

"Please refrain from taking the leash from me again, as that is not within the decided upon rules. I will be near the lounge for when you need me, I suggest you come," Sylveon spoke, speaking in straight forward responses like he usually did despite the situation's context.

Just like that, the eeveelution pokemon turned and walked off, not even bothering to retrieve Locke. The group was left behind- left to figure out what to do next.

The shinx's head immediately rose and his blush partly faded. Tamin walked up to him, placed her paw next to his neck and unclipped the leash. Freedom, at least partially. The ones around him didn't look down on him, but were stunned on what to do. Even unclipped, he was still embarrassed to the point of wanting to just sink into the floor.

"You two might as well go with Sylveon, I'll stay with him. He needs a companion right now," Tamin said as she approached the shinx again.

"Eh, alright," Dewott said. "Just don't be letting you get this down, Locke."

"...Thanks, I appreciate that," Locke said, his head and tail coming up a bit more but still lower than they usually were and his cheeks were still red.

"Stay safe," Mienfoo said.

Dewott and Mienfoo walked off to follow after Sylveon, leaving it to just Locke and Tamin.

"Thanks, Tamin," Locke said. "I'm sorry about all of this, I-"

"You don't need to explain. I had my ear on the door and eavesdropped on the whole conversation."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Tamin did not use more words than necessary.

"Huh… I honestly have no words to say for that to be frank," Locke replied, "I mean, I'm glad you did that out of concern but also embarrassed you heard ALL of that. So… yeah, I just don't know what to say."

"Cat got your tongue?"

"..."

"Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood a little."

"Your puns make it sound like we're both under bonds, because that is some really restrained humor," Locke joked, the slightest of grins forming on his saddened face.

Tamin's primary emotion went from empathy to surprise, taken aback by Locke's humor at her expense. "I don't quite think that's the case," she said awkwardly.

"Yeah, you're right. Humor actually tends to get better under restraints instead of worse, since it forces you to be more creative to get around those restraints," he continued. "Seems you have none."

The blush moved from Locke's cheeks to Tamin's to go along with a very nervous smile that was also forming. She wasn't comfortable with Locke's jokes (more so than the times before) as they were at her expense and she's been put down by others a significant amount in her past. However, she was capable of discerning that Locke was not meaning to be verbally abusive and only wanted to make the situation nicer with the only form of humor he knew. Though she could see the poetic irony of using dark humor to lighten things as well.

"Y-yeah," Tamin said with a drop of sweat coming down from her forehead.

If only for a brief moment, Locke forgot about the harness he was wearing and delighted himself with his jokes and the memories of what he told before.

"But going back, there is something I had wanted to tell you related to my eavesdropping," the minccino said as she recovered.

"Heheh- oh. Yeah?"

"I… I had actually overheard Hunter talking to his sister about wanting to pull some 'prank' on you yesterday, but I completely forgot to give you any warning about it," she admitted, regret coating her words.

"Wait, what?" Locke said.

"I'm so sorry! I overheard a lot of stuff that day that it all blended together in my head, I was so caught up talking to other people I didn't have a real opportunity to talk to you, I just don't like starting conversation and-... No, I'm not going to make excuses for myself. I'm so sorry, please don't be mad."

For a moment Locke tensed up, but that gave way to a simple sigh.

"It's okay, I can't get angry at you," Locke said. "I'm more mad at myself for all this, mad that I left on my own for this, and for all I care Hunter and Sylveon could get ha- no, I shouldn't say that."

"Mhm… what do you want to do now?"

"Be alone in my room for a while then go out for a mission into an 'M-D'."

"Sure?"

"I… just don't want to deal with the guild anymore today, I need to take a break and do some fighting to get my mind off of things."

"Can't blame you, I'm not the biggest fan of dealing with pokemon either."

The two fell silent for a moment, Locke feeling he couldn't do much aside from wallow and Tamin not knowing what words she could say that would make him feel better. But after that moment, Locke lifted his head up with a new idea on his mind.

"Oh, actually, there is a favor I would like if you did for me."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Sylveon said he was going to have some one on one discussions with the guild members. So, if you good at eavesdroppin', mind putting your ear on that?"

A cunning smile cam onto the minccino's face.

"I'll be right on it. Anything else you would like of me?" Tamin said.

"Nah, that's all I need from you."

"Right on."

Locke and Tamin split up. Locke walked up the stairs to the main floor of the building while Tamin stayed downstairs.

Locke travelled straight to his room with the most efficient route possible and shut himself in, trying to give himself time alone and not be seen.

Locke had the door to his room locked from the inside before he proceeded to lay down in his bed. The harness proved uncomfortable with the cloth being an unnecessary barrier between his fur and the much softer bedding.

"Do I really have to wear this twenty-four seven?" Locke thought to himself, "I guess.

I mean, they are right about me hurting Sebastien. And hurting some other people today as well. I guess they're right, I just can't help myself with that stuff. I didn't think this would be a problem with me working with a guild, I didn't even realize this about me for I joined here."

Locke stayed in his bed, laying down and setting his head on the bed sidings. His thoughts continued.

"Hunter, I swear to Arceus, you were the one who made me go through all this. Heh, I suppose the one upside of this is that I won't have to see you for a while. Although, would this have happened to me eventually either way?

Well if I'm to be honest with myself, probably.

As for how this will affect me in the future, I suppose no one in the guild would really make fun of me for this. Actually there was Venusaur who was bullying Tamin back during our first mission, so he might mess with me. But besides him I don't see anyone else making fun of me..."

Tamin- on the other hand- stalked Sylveon to see where he went off to. Finding that he went into his office, Tamin snuck into a neighboring room and pressed her ear against the wall between the rooms.

While Locke continued to think to himself while alone in his abode, Tamin executed the objective he bequeathed her. She leaned against the wall of the room she was in and controlled her breathing to avoid making more sound then she needed.

One by one, pokemon were called into Sylveon's office. One by one, he explained what happened to Locke, and the rules regarding his harness. One by one, Tamin secretly listened in on every conversation that took place. In a way, the minccino could at least respect him as he did exactly what he said he would. Sylveon got progressively more tired with explaining the same thing over and over again, and having to explain the logic behind the decision to everyone. The fact that it wasn't his decision further complicated it as he was unable to answer all follow up questions. "you'll have to ask Niot or Espeon, " and "this wasn't my decision," became phrases he used more and more across the ordeal.

Though it was never the repetitive words of Sylveon that Tamin was interested in. Rather, she was there for the reactions of others. Everyone knew about Locke's stunt before Sylveon carried him away (whether it was because they were there to see it themselves or they heard it from someone who did) but this was the first time they were hearing what exactly was being done to Locke.

Most were either neutral or skeptical of it, though there were the few that did agree with the idea. Tamin found a part of her feel sick at hearing how many weren't disagreeing with the bondage Locke was being put under. Nevertheless, Tamin remained silent as she listened in, clenching her fist in frustration. It was Mawile who gave the most intriguing, as she spoke to Sylveon like a friend and discussed about psychology. It was from that conversation that Tamin had a revelation: it was from Mawile's psychological profiles that the entire harness idea was constructed. The minccino's opinion of her quickly shifted, and she also got a spike of fear stabbed into her with the worrying thought of _"what does she have planned for me if that's what she did for Locke?"_

There were some that did speak out against the rules though, arguing with Sylveon until he demanded they leave the room for him to move onto the next guild member, saying the decision was already made. These dissenters proved helpful to Tamin's sanity as she found herself defending a ferocious shinx she met a week ago. Dewott and Mienfoo were both in this category, and Tamin figured that Crystal would be as well had she been awake at that time. However, it was Olivia that was the most vocal of all, practically yelling verbose arguments at Sylveon and speaking above the eeveelution for minutes on and until Sylveon needed to physically remove her from the room (but not without a struggle).

Tamin herself was called in by Sylveon about half-way through. It felt like more of an interrogation to her, but she maintained her bluffs with her smooth tongue and false expressions throughout the way. Sylveon was clueless that Tamin had already eavesdropped on all of it, and it gave Tamin some pride to be able to succeed at her deception. Afterwards, she went straight back to the neighboring room once Sylveon was done speaking to her directly. The whole process took just over an hour to tell every guild member. Tamin decided to wait in the room for another few minutes instead of leaving immediately as she felt that would garner less attention.

Once the whole process was finished, she waited for the perfect moment, and snuck out of the room and headed up the stairs to the main floor, taking the same route Locke took.

While Locke still laid on his bed, continuing to be mellow to himself, he heard knocking on his door.

"Hey Locke?" Tamin spoke through the door with a soft voice while she knocked, trying to be polite, "Do you want to still be alone or can I come in?"

Locke signed before replying, "Yeah. You can come in."

Tamin tried to open the door, but the attempt was stopped by the door's lock. She tried a few times which made sounds to signal Locke.

With another large sigh, Locke got up from his bed, walked over and shifted the bolt to let Tamin enter.

Locke walked back to his bed and laid down on his bed again, with Tamin coming and sitting right next to him.

"I'm sorry this happened to you," Tamin said to Locke.

"You've said that already," He responded.

"Sorry. But I eavesdropped on the others like you asked." She said.

"Oh, how did that go?" Locke said, his face lighting up slightly.

"Olivia, Dewott, Mienfoo and apparently a Buizel were the most outspoken against this. I think this is actually partly Mawile's idea. As for everyone else kinda just found it off, but still justifiable."

"Of course that's the case..." Locke said.

Locke and Tamin continued to talk for a little while longer, mostly discussing what Tamin picked up on her eavesdropping session. Locke eventually wanted to be alone again, with him respectfully asking Tamin to leave and her agreeing.

Locke's new solitude was cruelly short as only moments after Tamin left, the now painfully familiar meal bell was heard ringing from the mess hall core of the guildhouse.

"And there comes Inevitably knock-knocking on my door once more," Locke said to himself. "Really wish he would learn to respect boundaries."

He came to lunch and tried to have a normal meal, despite the fact of the matter being that there were more eyes on him than any other pokemon there. But after the initial shock phase of the experience had faded, Locke had gotten his guard up against feeling embarrassed and could block it out. He had gone through many dangerous dungeons before, so he would not let staring and whispers get to him. Besides, he doesn't want them to be the cause of losing his appetite.

Once fed, he went to the quest board room. Going in between the pokemon still looking at him and the red and black harness he wore, he got in front of the board and began looking for jobs.

"Hey, Locke," Dewott said to him calmly.

The shinx turned his head to check, and sure enough he saw his friend there. For a moment he wondered if it was Hunter he was looking at, but then he remembered that that zorua was still locked up in the blank room in the basement.

"Oh hey, I thought you were off on a mission with Tamin," Locke replied.

"I was, but I talked with Espeon and got myself taken off of the team, someone else took my spot on that mission now," Dewott explained. "I didn't want to leave you, so I managed to get things arranged so we can be together on a mission."

"Thanks man," the shinx said with another small smile managing to find its way on his low face.

They looked over the missions they could do together for a few minutes, Locke being up for anything as it was an escape from the guildhouse but Dewott being a bit more picky on not wanting to go on any mission that was far enough away that they would have to camp out for a night. Ultimately, those chose a mission in a location named Plaag Caves that involved restoring some broken seals that were placed in the dungeon years ago. Since Tamin and Mienfoo were off doing the mission that they originally signed up to do, they had to look towards bringing others along. However, most of the pokemon there did not want to go with Locke after what happened. Strangely enough, it was Rustin who was the first to come to them and offerered to join the group. Locke got the gut feeling that it wasn't a good idea, but after waiting for several more minutes and only a Nidorino coming along to offer to join (more like demand, as he believed his resistance to poisons would make him necessary for the location) they brought him along out of a lack of alternative options, regardless of the shinx's gut instincts. Then again, it was Locke's instincts that got him into the mess he was in, so it shouldn't have been trusted either way.

While the four got ready with their adventuring supplies, Locke did get to make use of the harness' pockets and a flare holder on his back that left flares over his shoulder. Certainly not attributes that made the harness completely redeemable, but a pleasant surprise nonetheless to take advantage of smaller designs.

Moving on, the four got back to the building's entryway once they were prepared. Dewott stood ahead of the group to artificially position himself like a leader would. "Alright, is everyone ready?"

"Before you go, you'll need this," Sylveon as a response to Dewott's question from deeper in the building.

They four all turned away from the door out to see Sylveon, seeing him approaching them, seeing them holding the same leash he previously used in the air.

Dewott stepped forward with the intent to grab it from Syvleon, but before he got there, Rustin used telekinesis to grab the leash and pull it over to him.

"Really?" Locke asked while Rustin examined the leash in his paws.

"Yes. Really." Sylveon responded as he walked away.

"You don't know if we will "need this"! You're just jumping to conclusions!" Locke proclaimed.

"Apologies if my choice of words were flawed. Either way, you're in their hands now."

Right after Sylveon said that, the leash could be heard being clicked by Rustin as he continued to examine it, causing Locke to pause for a moment to hear the clicks.

"...Are you going to put that on me?" Locke asked in a sadder voice as his aggression quickly died down and while he turned to Rustin.

"We'll see." Rustin said facing Locke, wrapping the leash up and putting it over his arm like one would carry a spun of rope.

Locke growled in anger at Rustin. He stopped when he noticed Dewott and Nidorino walking out toward the guild foyer, prompting both Locke and Rustin to follow them out.

Outside of the building once again, they journeyed across the land towards the caverns they were to tend to. Locke walked in the back of the group, the harness blocking some of the winds from touching him. While it kept him warmer than he would be without it, the feeling of the wind brushing between his individual strands of fur and each of them swaying around was gone, and it was such a subtle feeling of freedom that he missed. Along the way Rustin curiously placed his paw on the back of his neck. Although it wasn't hooking him up to a leash, by the way Rustin was walking with him and guiding him with this, he could tell his intentions.

"I don't think that's necessary," Locke told Rustin, speaking in a manner far more polite then he would usually produce as he believed it would appeal to the psychic type better.

"Listen, the first time I met you, you were attacking the people trying to rescue you and I had to work to get you calm. Them I heard about you clawing into my sister's neck, and now I heard about you going ballistic in the basement. Not to mention the times you went ferocious in-between those times," Rustin told Locke quietly, "So I'm sure even you could take a guess on whose side I'm taking right now."

Locke grumbled at him, but held himself out from making a scene.

"Just try to ignore him; he likes testing people," Nidorino interjected to Locke, speaking in a few words.

Dewott was at the head of the group during this interaction, focusing more on the map that guided them to their destination.

The shinx went silent for the journey from there. The trek to the location was mercifully short, not even totalling up to an hour. When they started getting close, the destination could be easily seen by purple miasma leaking into the atmosphere like smoke from a factory, it might as well have been an active beacon to signal where they needed to go. It took little effort to follow the clouds to the dungeon at that point. Although the closer they got, the denser the miasma became as well, and once they finally got there the miasma was so distinct that they avoided standing directly in front of the cavern's entrance.

"And here we are," Rustin said, speaking as though he was the leader.

"Alright, everyone wait for one second, there are some things with this mission that everyone needs to know about," Nidorino said as he slipped his large backpack off of his back. Once it was set onto ground he began delving inside, where he pulled out three filter masks and canisters of sealing clay. "These masks will allow us to breathe in the caverns. We need to stop the miasma from escaping the cavern, so we have to find some seals installed in there a while ago to repair them, that way no more miasma will leak through."

"Only three masks?" Rustin asked as he observed what was being pulled out.

"I'm a poison type myself, so I'll be fine with breathing in there," Nidoran said.

"How bad is the poison if we breathe it?" Dewott asked.

"Bad. Very bad. Extraordinarily bad," Nidoran said. "Umbreon entered it years ago without a mask back when she was an explorer, and she was left bedridden for days because of it. Very nearly died."

"Alright, alright. Let's get these on," Dewott replied.

Rustin and Dewott both grabbed the masks shaped for them and put them over their mouth and nose then strapped it together with the back of their head like a muzzle without a problem. Locke wasn't able to perform the same actions due to his quadrupedal build, so Rustin helped strap the mask onto him. They checked to make sure all of their masks were secure without gaps on its edges.

"Aight, let's find those seals," Dewott said, his voice being partially drowned out as it had to go through the mask.

Putting the clay canisters in their bags, the four journeyed inside, directly delving into the dense purple miasma. They stepped in while the four were side-by-side with one another, no singular one taking the lead as there were already subtle attempts to gain a leadership position and they realized that it won't get them anywhere.

The area was three parts caverns and two parts weald. While hard and oppressive stone was everywhere, there were also large patches of dirt which grew alien-looking plants that had adapted to the poison at the cost of looking like normal flora and many, many fungal structures that grew from the dead leaves and the plants that had seen their end. It wasn't pitch-black, as much of the fungus curiously glowed blue, green, and cyan to provide an uneasy light source. The party immediately felt the air seem to get thinner with oxygen, as their masks could only extract what oxygen was available rather than convert the miasma into oxygen, thus making it harder to breathe. Another property that became apparent to Locke, Rustin, and Dewott was they seemed to lose their sense of smell as any scent which arose from the dungeon was stopped dead in its tracks by the filters which covered their nose. Even though they didn't see a soul within, the dangers of the dungeon were brazenly apparent, surrounding them from the north, south, east, and west alike.

"Oh, this should go without saying, but don't remove your mask for any reason. Not even for a second," Nidoran said as they continued searching around. "If you take it off, you're allowing some miasma to get on the inner side of the mask, and a pocket of bad air when you put it back on. So even if you hold your breath while it's off, you'll still end up taking in a breath of unfiltered poison."

"I appreciate your concern and I'll be followin' it, but my body does have great fortitude so I should be fine," Dewott said.

"Same with me," Locke followed up.

"Your bodies aren't as strong as you might think they are," Rustin stated.

"Nah, I think _your_ body ain't strong, but ours are," Locke said. "Psychic types can often be a bit squishy in exchange for their big brain energy, from what I've found."

"I mean, you are right to some extent, but you still should expect to take much of the poison in you," Rustin said with reluctance. "But yes, it is quite ironic how we have such great minds that are trapped in ever so fragile bodies." Even with the mask on, it could be seen that the meowstic cringed at the recollection of bad memories.

"Y'know, since I can breathe underwater then if my mask gets broken then I could sustain myself on canteen water for a minute," Dewott said.

"What?" Rustin asked.

"What?"

"I mean, I can think of like four different reasons on why that wouldn't be a good idea."

"It's only for a minute for buying time for me to get out," Dewott further tried to justify.

"Yo that actually reminds me, I haven't actually been to a dungeon with you before, Dewott," Locke commented.

"Yeah, I noticed that too,"

"What's your combat style like?"

"Oh," Dewott grabbed his two scalchops and held them up to show them clearly, "I've mainly practiced with parrying for my style. It's a lot better to parry with an object then parry with your own arm, and these babies being slightly curved makes them so much better on top of that."

"Ah, interesting. I was kind of wondering what you planned to do since you had the mask covering the place you shoot water out from."

"Nah, I'm mostly melee," he said.

They talked with one another for a moment longer as the group walked deeper into the dungeon, but only a few seconds later they had to stop when the skittering of a few pokemon in the dungeon was heard.

The fights were few and far between, nothing the explorers could not handle even with the added challenge of making sure their masks weren't damaged. But the pervasive miasma on the other hand only became denser, making it harder to breathe and covering the area to limit the line of sight even more. Though by the nature of their mission, they knew that the denser it got, the closer they were to their goal.

"Well, as things are getting harder to see, I think this will be the ideal time to bring this out," Rustin said as he turned to his bags once more.

From his backpack, he pulled out the same leash that he had gotten from Sylveon, and immediately went to step towards Locke with it. Having spent so much of the day already arguing over it, Locke didn't say anything (which would have created noise for others to hear them anyways). He twitched backwards out of reflex, but besides that he remained still while the meowstic attached the lead to him.

"He's perfectly calm right now, Rustin. There's no point to that," Dewott stated.

"This is also to keep him from wandering off from the team like he has done before, and when all of our vision is obscured, this is the last time we want him walking off to Arceus knows where."

"Still a dick move," Dewott said.

"No, I think what would constitute as a 'dick move' is attacking my sister in the middle of a fight," Rustin said, gaining a smug smile that was made impossible to see by the gas mask.

Rustin gave a tight pull at the lead just because he could and to send a message, but after that they continued walking forward again.

"Okay, it's actually getting really hard to see now," Rustin complained out loud.

"We could create some more light. It's not as useful in what is essentially fog as normal darkness, but would still guide the way better," Nidorino said.

"Let's just use a stunstick then," Dewott said.

"A what?" Nidorino asked.

"Oh sorry, 'stunsticks' are just what I call flares," Dewott said as he quickly pulled his blue-striped flare that was attached underneath his backpack out for demonstration. "I mean, ya shove em up to a dungeon pokemon's face and activate it to stun them for a good few seconds, and they're shaped like sticks, so yeah. 'Stunsticks' are the perfect name for them."

"Please inform us when you are going to use made-up vocabulary like that," Rustin said, annoyed.

"But, isn't like all of vocabulary technically made up?" Dewott said, "I'm pretty sure that's how lingui-whatever works."

"Oh my gosh, this is not the time to go into philosophy. You're not even good at it, leave the philosophizing up to psychic types like me and just do your job. Fighting is your speciality, and we should all focus on our specialities."

"Can we not get into an argument?" Locke said while shooting a disdainful glare at Rustin while still being pulled by him.

"Right, let's stay focused," Rustin said, slightly suprised but agreeing with Locke in an event that to those capable of hearing felt like a chance occurrence with similar probability of happening to winning the lottery.

"Anywaves, if we need some light, why don't you just use your own 'flare', Nidorino?" Dewott suggested.

"We could, but remember that my flare is purple to match my type color, it won't help that much to have purple-tinted light for us to get through purple miasma with, the colors would just blend together," Nidorino explained. "In fact, the smoke from the flare might make it harder to see than easier overall."

"Oh dang, you're right. And my flare is a normal (maybe a bit darkish) blue, so that's a bit better but it's still not going to construct very well in this place…"

"Mine is pink for psychics," Rustin stated. "And saying that out loud, I just realized how weird that sounds that I carry around bright pink with me on every mission."

"Mine's-" Locke began talking, but wasn't given full time to finish his thought as Rustin stopped and reached towards Locke to grab straight at the yellow-striped flare on top of his harness. Once he had a grip, he pulled it right out and got it in both of his paws.

"We'll use this, yellow goes against the purple here pretty well," the meowstic spoke as though it was entirely his idea and a quick moment of genius that he thought of it

"Hey! You could at least have asked!" Locke said.

"Take one for the team, Locke. If you're able to do that after being rogue for so long, that is," Rustin said without even giving the shinx a glance as his eyes were locked squarely on the flare.

He pointed it forward and away from his teammates, then ripped off the yellow stripe to activate the flare. It operated as normal, giving a contrail of yellow smoke along with yellow tinted light to lead the way down the natural tunnels.

"And just like that: we've got a way to see now," Rustin said boastfully.

"Still a dick…" Dewott quietly muttered to himself as they followed the now-luminous trail.

The pathway had become linear, which made navigation as easy as one would assume but they slowed down their pace anyways to keep up their guard for wild pokemon, of which a few did breach through the miasma to attack them. What few battles they did were start-and-stop, and their combined skills made it an inconsequential concern. Dewott did most of the work, parrying away talons and venom-infused teeth alike to follow them up with devastating counterattacks. Locke tried to help in every encounter, but only found himself fighting against Rustin and the leash more than any wild pokemon as he was relegated to being a spectator to the one thing he found most fun in the dungeons. No damage dealt to his fur, but a light jab at his emotions.

After their fourth tussle in the yellow light, it went an entire minute without an encounter happening again. As predictable as the output of a clockwork machine, words began leaving their mouths once more.

"Alright, I think you can afford to take him off of the leash now, Rustin," Dewott said.

"Please," Locke added on, saying it like a statement with authority and not begging.

"I don't think that would be advisable right now," Rustin replied.

"And why the frick not?" Dewott said.

"Look at his eyes, they're red right now. That's what they seem to change to when he gets ferocious," Rustin argued.

"So are yours," Dewott pointed out.

Hearing this discussion, Nidorino turned to look at the other three. When he did, he saw that all of their eyes were strained into an unnatural red, affecting the white of the eyes just as much as the pupils. Dewott's eyes were the closest to their original color, but were far more watery as well.

"Oh gosh," Nidorino said as he saw them.

"What is it?" Locke asked.

"The poison is staining your eyes, we've got to find those seals fast," he explained.

"It's okay, I have a feeling we're close to the end of the line now," Locke replied.

"Please don't trust your instincts and random hunches, they do not come from rationality," Rustin said. "Although considering how dense it is right now, that is a good indication we're getting close."

"So it's wrong when I say it but right when you do?"

"What you said comes from instinct while I used careful analysis and dungeoneering."

"The difference being?"

"Please, don't talk so much," Nidorino interjected. "Your masks can only filter so much poison, and when we are in clouds of it this thick you are more than likely breathing in a little poison with every breath.

Dewott, give me your flare. Your blue one is the next best one we have."

Heeding to the explicit advice of not talking, Dewott silently pulled his flare out and handed it over. Nidorino then took it and aimed it forwards to create a contrail of blue. But instead of going its full length, the projectile hit a wall and had its explosion happen prematurely.

The four all squinted to look forward, attempting to see through the miasma and smoke clouds with their teary and strained eyes. After the dust settled, they could see glimpses of a shade of grey that was different from the dungeon's andesite at the end.

"That's got to be the old seals," Nidorino said.

"Let's go right in and finish this job up then," Dewott stated.

"Eh, I don't feel that's the best idea," Locke told the team.

"There's no chance the masks will block out all of the poison if you get that close. I'll patch up the seals myself," Nidorino replied.

"No, I have the best dexterity out of anyone here, so I'll be the best at repairing them. You two can stay back and make sure no one comes at us from behind, but I'm going to get those seals patched up."

There was a nod among them to signal an agreement. All of the canisters of sealing clay were handed to Dewott and Nidorino, which they took and walked deeper in while Locke stayed back with Rustin.

The original seal was several meters tall and wide to lock in the deadliest parts of the mystery dungeon. Close to the center of it was a hole about forty centimeters in wide, no doubt punctured by a wild pokemon who was unaware of the seal's purpose. The canisters were opened and the hard clay was pulled out so they could begin patching the hole up. Locke and Rustin looked the other way for any wild pokemon to fight, but none revealed themselves.

Dewott was quick as he began the restoration process, but gradually slowed with every small whiff of poison that entered his lungs. Competitions to hold his breath for a long time as he could that he had done months prior served him well in allowing him to stay there, but that couldn't save him from toxicity levels comparable to smoking a handful of cigarettes all at the same time. Even Nidorino felt his lungs sting like insect bites from the poison, and it annoyed him so much he wished he got a filter mask for himself. Nevertheless, the pushed on and kept slapping clay on until the hole was fully prepared. After a few quick pats to flatten it down, they began going to turn back and walked towards the way they came.

On the way back, Dewott was much weaker and rested part of himself on Nidorino so that he could keep up and ensure he was going the right direction. He didn't have the strength left to argue with Rustin, so the meowstic continued to hold Locke on the leash uncontested.

Mercifully, they weren't attacked on the way back out. The four each went through the flora-filled cavern as the air became clearer and clearer. Before too long, they saw the sunlight seeping into the land again. With a final sprint to the boundless outdoors, they escaped the dungeon and ran behind the dungeon's entrance to escape the miasma that remained. They removed their masks and took in deep breaths of fresh air. Rustin also unclipped the leash from Locke.

"We did it, the mission's over," Locke said.

"With the seal restored, far less poison will leak into the atmosphere," Rustin said.

With the simple bliss of being able to breathe freely restored, they walked back. Although Locke did get a silent reminder that he was still stuck in the harness when everyone took off their masks but he couldn't take that garment off. The excursion as a whole away from the guildhouse didn't do the same thing to cheer Locke up as he had hoped it would.

Retracing the route through the lands, they returned back. Reward money was collected, successes were marked, and they settled down. Not long after, Tamin met up with Locke.

"Hey Locke, how did it go?" she asked innocently.

"Eh, better than I thought it would be. But you can- but I assume you can guess what happened with Rustin on the team," Locke replied.

"Yeah, I had an idea," Tamin said. She desired to say something negative about the meowstic Rustin out loud, but was worried about potential repercussions that saying those things aloud for others to hear could have.

"Hang on, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be off on your own mission?" Locke asked.

"Oh, I convinced them to let me get my daily work in through cleaning instead of a mission," Tamin explained.

"Okay, but aren't you keeping yourself from getting experience by doing that?"

"Don't worry, it'll be alright," she reassured. "Anyways, Scampi told me about an ice cream store that's in town. So I was thinking about going to it to cheer you up a little. It's about to close for the winter anyways."

"That sounds quite nice, thanks." Locke said.

"We have a plan then," Tamin said, "come with me, I think I remember the directions there."

"Got it,"

They left the building to return to the streets of the town again. Going from road to road, exposed to pokemon outside of the guild.

"Let's see… I think it was this way there. No wait no- this was the way," Tamin said as she led the trio.

"Hey, when we get there could you pay for my cone?" Locke asked Tamin.

"Yeah, that's what I had planned. You've had a long day, so it's the right thing to do."

"Mhm. That, and I don't really have a lot of money to myself, to be perfectly honest," Locke replied.

"But wait, haven't you been doing more difficult missions than me?" Tamin asked. "How are you almost out of money?"

"I've been giving a lot of my money to Crystal," he said.

"What?"

"She says she needs it for her artwork supplies, and it would be best if I gave it to her," Locke clarified.

"And you're not keeping any for yourself?"

"Crystal usually pays for things for me, so it's fine. She also says that she'll handle the money better than me."

"Um, okay then. I'll cover you."

It took only one more minute of traveling through the town before they found the shop.

"Here it is." Tamin said.

"This should be sweet." Locke stated.

"Of course it will be Locky!" A different voice altogether- but still familiar- said from above.

"Oh you have got to be kidding-" Locke began saying before he was interrupted.

Olivia landed right in-between the two of them from the air. She hit the ground safely on her small emolga feet by using her wings to slow her fall, her scarf falling down with her and rested well on her shoulders after the landing.

"So how has your day gone!?" Olivia said in her sporadic voice.

"Well, not the best. I'm sure you know all about what happened with me, Hunter and Sylveon before lunch. And on my mission I was constantly being yanked around by Rustin-"

"Oh that stupid meowistic!" Olivia said in an angry voice, "I am so sorry about what happened to you. Say, I heard you're going to this ice cream shop. So how about I pay for your food?"

"Really?" Tamin asked.

"NOT YOU!" Olivia said, suddenly going back to an angry voice, "I'm only paying on behalf of my B.F.!"

"Well I was already planning on paying for both of us so I'm not really sad about that," Tamin responded quietly.

"Whatever. Let's just go." Locke said.

The three walked up to the shop window. The window was low enough that Tamin and Olivia could simply stand up to see inside, with Locke getting onto his hind legs and placing his front paws on the window to support himself and gaze in as well.

They were greeted by a white ninetails with snow-like fur and tails that somehow looked both messy and smooth simultaneously. The mere presence of him brought forth a chill to them, not caused by any sort of intimidation but by a cold aura that accompanied him.

"Hello there!" He greeted them cheerfully while maintaining a hint of respect, since he recognized Tamin before and the others wore scarves that meant they worked for the guild.

The three ordered what they wanted. Locke asked for an ice cream sandwich, Tamin chose a vanilla ice cream cone with some toppings and Olivia went full out with a cone containing a hodgepodge of different flavors and toppings, pushing what the shop was willing to allow for orders.

"Okay, take a seat while we'll get it to you," the ninetails said to them.

The three walked over to one of the tables set outside of the shop, taking shade under a dimming arrangement set up on the table as they sat down on it.

"I can't believe what they did to you," Olivia commented.

"Yeah. I think I can eventually get used to it. I just need to make sure I always team with the right people."

"Well, you can always count on me! I won't put you on a leash or let anyone else do that."

"Thanks."

"Huh, they are actually agreeing with each other for once," Tamin thought to herself, "I'm just going to watch how this plays out."

"Alright, I got your ice cream!" Another voice said while coming out.

Turning their heads to the other voice, they saw a female shinx coming out. She was wearing a special suit that held the ice cream they ordered on her back and side on cups attached to it.

The shinx came over the table they sat at, with the three grabbing their treats from her.

"I hope you like it!" The shinx happily said to them before she began to turn around and walk off.

"Hang on one second," Locke said to her.

"Yeah?" The female shinx said as she turned around to look at Locke.

"Sorry if this is an odd question, but wasn't your mother Valence?"

"Uh, yeah," she responded.

"Okay," Locke said, "I heard about her from Espeon at the guild. That ninetails would be your dad then, correct?"

"Yeah. He's my father," the shinx responded, with the others getting interested on this conversation, "Why are you asking?"

Locke spent a moment of thought before he responded, having to remind himself of what he was doing.

"Sorry for wasting your time." Locke said, "I think I know all I need about her. I suppose the only real reason I'm interested about her is because we're the same species."

"Yeah, I guess it is kind of neat to see another shinx." She said while looking at the ground and having her mood change, "My name is Elley by the way (and no, that's not short for anything).

"I'm Locke," he replied, "It was nice to meet you. I'm sure you're a great person."

"Thanks..." Elley said as her head and tail lowered.

Elley spent a moment looking at the ground while she reminisced. Seeing another shinx had awoken some memories within her. It was a story she was well familiar with, almost thought about it daily. She was not always an only child, but was ever since her old house was lit on fire years ago, before she even had true permanent memory. It was a tale she tried to forget; forgetfulness was her go-to coping mechanism, but seeing another shinx served as her stark reminder that the lonely life of an only child was one she was so close to not having to live with and hearing the name of her mother was a stark reminder that she was left only with her dad.

"Are you okay?" Tamin asked Elley, noticing how she was looking at the ground.

"Huh? Oh right- yeah, I'm alright… Enjoy your ice cream, thank you for coming."

The female shinx went back towards the building, retreating to her abode to escape from social interaction again.

The three turned to look at each other, and then silently returned to their treats. They melted slowly due to the temperature, which offered more time for them to be consumed in their ideal form instead of a liquid soup of flavor. There were also glasses of water present that they took to treat their chilled throats. Although even if it wasn't melting much, Locke had limited dexterity with his quadruped build and had some blotches fall off from the cone onto his fur and harness. With permission, Tamin cleaned the blotches with her tail before the stains could get too deep, and that action led to an unarticulated spike of jealousy in Olivia.

Hours passed since they finished their ice cream and paid. Dinner was served and eaten, many eyes still stared at Locke, the nocturnal pokemon woke up, and the planet kept spinning. Locke was not surprised when he saw the sun set and night come around, quite the opposite actually. It felt like the day was twice as long as it actually was whereupon the moon was several hours late to its shift. Yet instead of putting himself to bed in an attempt to end the cursed day early and gain sleep which he still very much needed, Locke opted instead to sit on the porch of the guildhouse's second story to sit alone and gaze at the moon. The temperature was frigid- above freezing but still enough to cause shivers in those used to lives in well-heated homes and the wind complimented to create the small whisper of nature. He wasn't fully sure himself why he felt it was best to be there, perhaps the outdoors and canvas of stars overhead gave him that illusive feeling of freedom more than anything else, perhaps he was meeting that feeling as a way of saying goodbye to a friend as he had a terrible premonition of what was to come next and his friend named freedom wouldn't pay him a visit for a long time. It was serene, for the first time that day Locke felt it actually could go on for hours longer and he would be fine.

As Locke continued to sit down and silently look up at the moon and around the land, Dewott quietly came up to where he was and looked at the shinx in his peace. He didn't see a ferocious pokemon who got rightfully restrained like others had, he only saw a friend.

"Hey, Locke," he spoke to catch his attention.

"Huh? Oh hey, Dewott."

"Mind if I come?"

"Go ahead."

The water type pokemon walked up to the shinx and sat down with him, sitting on the edge with his legs dangling off.

"Sorry for how today has gone," Dewott said.

"I know… still freaking hate Hunter," Locke vented.

"I can understand that."

They fell silent for another second, their conversation getting as frigid and hollow as the temperature felt on their skin.

"Any particular reason you came here?" Locke asked.

"Yes, actually," Dewott replied. "I just wanted you to know that I've gone through some pretty humiliating stuff in this guild, we all have. So you're not alone with this."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"So… you've attacked other guild members and gotten restrained before as well?" Locke asked, his tone increasing greatly to indicate high confusion.

"Well, no. I'm not- that in specific hasn't happened to me, I'm referring to like, embarrassment in general," Dewott clarified.

"Oh, I see," Locke said, understanding. "So.. what have you gone through then?"

"Well…" he said with a nervous look and raising his arm to scratch the back of his head, "I've had a few times in the guildhouse where I needed to use the bathroom badly and- well- I didn't hold in my bladder long enough."

"Oh… ick, sorry to hear that," Locke replied, having some second-hand embarrassment as he visualized what was being described.

"Yeah… it's some medical issues I was hatched with, not very fun to deal with."

"I can see why that would be pretty bad. Say, is there anything you need some help with?"

"Well, there are some errands in town I plan to do tomorrow. I hate shoppin' but I've delayed it longer than I should have already."

"I see. I can help you out with that if you want," Locke told him.

"Ya sure? It'll probably be a few hours (I've put way too much stuff off). You could just rest tomorrow away from everyone else," Dewott said, surprised that Locke would make the offer.

"Yea, if you need help then I can give that," he assured.

"Dude, no one's forcing you. You've gone through a lot today, you can take some time off to yourself."

"Don't worry about me, I'm always up to helpin' you out."

"Well… thank you then, I guess I'm just surprised you would still be willing to do that after all of this."

"Nah, it's alright. After thinking about it, I just don't see how this is worse than the near-death experiences that I've had in dungeons. That's something you should know about me: I can be bent without being broken."

"That's very fine to know then!" Dewott said with spirits brought up from the depths of melancholy. "I could try to think of some competitions we could do tomorrow after the errands are done."

"I mean we certainly could, but I think we both know who the stronger one is now."

"What do you mean?"

"There hasn't been any restraints put on you, meanwhile I'm the one who's so strong they had to put a harness on me to hold back my power! I'm literally too powerful for them to handle," Locke joked around, even though he knew full that wasn't the reason he had to wear the harness.

"Haha, yes of course! I bet you're so powerful you could one 'v' one a legendary if you weren't held back," Dewott played along to the joke.

"Just watch, the moment this gets taken off there's going to be this burst of energy from me that destroys the guildhouse."

"They're gonna have to upgrade to some pressurized restraints soon enough."

"Ah, but will that be enough?"

The two shared more jokes and laughed with one another for minutes longer, enjoying one another's company.

"Man, it's great to see you're still fun to be with," Dewott said after getting through the jokes.

"Thanks. Hey, it's getting late, but do you want to be together tomorrow as well?" Locke asked.

"Not sure, I had some plans with Mienfoo we made a week ago that day," Dewott replied.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to ask, how are things going between you and her?"

"Great as always! She's a delight to be with."

"That's good to hear. Say, who's the dominant one in your relationship? I don't believe I've asked," Locke casually inquired.

"What, what?" Dewott responded in confusion.

"What do you mean 'what'?"

"I don't get what you mean by 'dominant'?"

"Crystal told me about that. To avoid getting into arguments, it's best that people in relationships just agree on one of them to be a dominant one. That way, the other can just follow what that person says and there will be no more arguing."

"Umm, no. Neither of us are, we're both equals," Dewott said, still confused.

"Really?"

"Yes. I'ma be frank, I've never heard of that 'dominant one' stuff you're talking about right now."

"You haven't? Huh… Do you get into arguments with Mienfoo?"

"Well yeah, but not anymore than a healthy amount."

"Hmm…"

"I'll be honest, I haven't heard of that kind relationship at all before. It actually sounds kind of- well, it's not what everyone does. I can say that much," Dewott said, correcting what he was saying to avoid coming across as rude."

"Huh, alright then. Anyways, anything else you want to chat about?"

They continued talking until they ran out of things to say on the top of their head and wanted to move inside to avoid the cold night.

**End of chapter 13.**


	14. End of the Line

Tamin stood on the second story of the guild and looked through one of the glass windows in the guild. She was silent as she observed.

The morning light still loomed over the landscape with its golden rays. The sun had only risen a little over an hour ago and Tamin made sure to look through a window in the opposite direction of the sun to avoid her eyes hurting.

It was what was outside that was of note. Tamin watched individual snowflakes fall from the sky and descend towards the ground, almost immediately melting upon hitting the ground that was still too warm to accommodate the snow.

"First snow of the year," Tamin said to herself as she kept looking.

The weather itself was not what was interesting (after all, it left no lasting effect on the ground). Rather, the implications behind it was the reason it was interesting and kept Tamin watching.

Fall was ending, winter was starting, and the snowfall heralded that. Even if it could not stay on the ground for a second, the weather still served as a harbinger for what was to come.

Tamin reminisced on the past winters she went through. The fact that she was only three years old (aging as a minccino does) meant that there weren't too many winters she lived through and even less that she could remember well. In many regards, it was still a new experience for her.

The past winters Tamin did remember were less than desirable. It was a time where everyone stayed in their homes for the most of the day, which meant that her parents could do things to her without the world outside noticing. What they could get away with and still maintain their facade of a great family loosened during that time. She still had the marks of past winters as well, carefully cloaked under her fur and the claims that they were birthmarks.

While Tamin continued to look out the window and reminisce on her past, she could hear two guild members walk past behind her. Naturally, Tamin's ears raised up to listen in. Her eyes moved to the side in their direction without her head moving along with it. It was something that had become instinct to her.

Tamin's eyes told her that it was Olivia and Mawile who were walking past her. But what her ears told her was the part that she found more interesting

"So you think his instincts are why he is doing that stuff and how you justify restraining Locky? After all, you were the one who suggested it," Tamin heard Olivia asking Mawile.

"The alternative theory is that he is bipolar," Mawile spoke, "But I still think it is that instinct thing.

Bad, terrible habits he's developed from being alone and a rogue for so long.

He hasn't gone on enough missions to make an accurate conclusion yet, but from what Rustin told me it sounds like the right approach. Still too early to tell though."

Olivia and Mawile continued to discuss with each other as Tamin was at the window eavesdropping on them. Tamin stayed at the window while Olivia and Mawile walked away while talking. Because of this, they eventually faded from Tamin's hearing as she had limits on how far away she could hear.

Having been done with looking out of the window and unable to continue listening in onto Olivia, Tamin had to figure out what was the next thing she could do. It was still morning, which she felt was too early to head off onto a mission. So she would have to wait around until lunch where her day could really start. Or better yet, she could use this opportunity to eavesdrop on the other members of the guild as she had done before. Indeed, her ethically questionable hobby would make for wonderful meterial that she could kill some time with.

With that plan set, that is exactly what she went off to do. She followed similar routes she did on previous eavesdropping sessions.

Yet after burning off thirty minutes of time like how one burns off incense, she found the subjects being talked about just weren't as interesting as they were on other days. About half of the conversations were about Locke- a situation she knew everything about so she gained no real new insights from hearing about it. The other half of the conversation subjects were slightly more tantalizing, but no truly fascinating pieces of gossip were shared.

She considered spending time with Mienfoo since it was days since she last trained with her. But on her way to doing that, Tamin got a different thought. "I wonder what Hunter is up to. He should still be locked up in that room, and if the walls were thin enough that I could hear what Sylveon said to Locke, I wonder if I could hear him mumbling to himself or doing something else in that room…"

She spent a moment thinking to herself about what to do, and the various thoughts about Hunter and what he could be doing proved tempting, and far more interesting to do than a training session was. With only slight reluctance, the minccino headed off to the basement. The imprints of Locke's ferocious outbreak were still present with burns marks in the wall from discharged electricity and scratches in the carpet from his claws, but that was not what she was interested in. She navigated through the tunnels towards the containment room, narrowly avoiding getting lost in a few separate points.

Although as she approached the room in question, before rounding the final corner, she heard something she did not expect to. Whispers, whispers being exchanged in a conversation. Getting closer and slowly peeking her head around the corner to observe, she saw a vulpix sitting directly outside of the door and quietly talking to Hunter on the other side through the door.

Like what had happened with every other circumstance she came across the vulpix, Tamin recalled the strange and suspicious things she heard and discovered was her talking. It seemed like an opportunity to finally learn more about her. The minccino hugged the wall and peeked her eyes around the corner to observe.

Tamin was unable to hear Hunter's side of the conversation, but she could discern that the talking was just simple chat on casual subjects. As silent as she could, she kept spying.

Yuki the vulpix continued talking for some time, but then got the sinking feeling of being walked. Her talking slowed down while she looked around to attempt to find the source of this feeling. In doing so, she caught a slight glimpse of the minccino peaking around the wall.

Tamin ducked behind the corner as the vulpix looked in her direction, though it was too late. A wide and sly smile came across Yuki's face, cheek to cheek.

"Sorry Hunter, but I'll have to cut this short. I'll be sure to see you again ever-so-soon," Yuki said, taking a space between syllables and applying emphasis for the last few words.

The fox turned towards the opposite direction from where Tamin was in and began running off, thus creating the sound of skittering paws on the floor of raw earth. Hunter was left confused, whereas Tamin was able to hear that sound of skittering.

_"No, I'm not going to let you get away this time,"_ Tamin thought, her desire to investigate the vulpix being fully ignited.

Jumping onto all-fours, Tamin sprinted after Yuki to follow the path she was taking. Thus, a chase ensued.

The walls and general structure of the location, triggering Tamin's O.C.D, which made her made with all its countless inconsistencies and failure to follow proper patterns, but through determinations he refused to let that stop her. A left turn, another left turn, straight down a long hall, a right turn, one more left turn, a right turn, they traversed a large portion of the basement. The chase took a few seconds over a minute, but the vulpix eventually reached a dead end. It was a portion of the guildhouse that didn't even have wood set down in it, only untapped dirt with a passageway hardly any taller than they were that led to it, the room was claustrophobically small. Yuki ran up to the flat wall at the other end and turned around, but before she could run out, Tamin got herself positioned in the passageway to block the way out with her body.

"Well, aren't you the curious type?" Yuki the vulpix asked.

For a moment, Tamin questioned herself on whether or not she was being baited into some kind of trap. She was reminding herself what Hunter was willing to do and assuming it all also applied to Yuki with things she would be willing to do. She knew that Hunter was confirmed to still be in the room he was locked up in, and the only other guild member that she knew had ever sided with them was Olivia, which would still be upstairs. So it couldn't be any sort of ambush set up for her. There was still the possibility of a physical machination as a trap such as a net, although the walls were hard and lacking any crevices for a trap to potentially be set up in, so the idea that any could be successfully installed was a preposterous notion. Even still, the situation and Yuki's mood simply seemed off, and served as a mood setter for the interrogation Tamin planned to commence.

"You could say that about me, yes. But right now you're the subject of interest, I'd say, " Tamin said.

"Well then, go ahead: ask away with your questions," Yuki replied.

The eerie feeling that this was some sort of trap returned for Tamin. Not because of anything that was present, but because of that which was absent: concern. The vulpix seemed fearless despite being cornered.

"First of all, would you care to explain what you were doing with Hunter?"

"Just simple chat between family members, you know? Actually, nevermind, you likely didn't kniw," she answers while just sitting down with her body still and a few movements with her tails, "I just don't want to leave him be too lonely."

"Wouldn't that be against the rules since that isolation is his punishment for what he did?"

"Most likely," she answered, perfectly compliant.

"How exactly are you related to Hunter?" Tamin asked, starting with more casual questions. "I've heard siblings, half-siblings, and your species do not match."

"It's a simple story, really. My mother was a ninetails and my father a zoroark. When I was still young, my mom left my dad for some reasons; she left in ambi-gui-ity. So he went and married a female zoroark. They went and made an egg together, and when I was one Hunter hatched from that egg. Half-siblings, but we've spent most of our lives together nevertheless."

"So you were raised by two zoroarks?"

"For almost my entire life, yes."

"Alright, alright. I think it's time I ask what's important."

"Oh? Is something interesting about to happen?" Yuki asked sarcastically.

"What in the world is going on between you and that braixen? I've been able to overhear your conversations."

"Oh me oh my, what an excellent question! Shame I can't answer it."

"Why? What's preventing you?"

"If I were to tell you the story, that'd break the deal we have going," she said, her smile coming back and some movements in her tails happening as she spoke.

"What deal?"

"A rather straightforward one, that is. I know some of his secrets, he doesn't want more people about them, so he does what I say in exchange for me not telling others about it. Truly a remarkable example of commerce, we both get what we want without any scams involved.

This is why I can't tell you the precise details, of course. If I were to tell you more about Braixen, that would break my side of the bargain, you see?"

"So you're blackmailing him?" Tamin asked, chillingly cold.

"Quite an apt description of our deal, yes."

"Just what the hell are you making him do?" Tamin's voice grew ever more authoritative.

"To make things simple, whatever I want to. I keep things within the confines of my room, but the rest is up to my imagination. He could dance for me, read for me, or play my favorite games," Yuki said, every word filled with nonchalance and slid off of her tongue like it was no big deal. "It's almost like a doll with what I can do with him. He allows me to feel em-broi-ded."

"What- what in the actual hell?!" Tamin said, getting off guard. "This is all ridiculously messed up, you're completely humiliating him and preventing him from getting any help."

"Hmm… I'd have to disagree with you on that. By all accounts, humility is a virtue and pride is a sin, and humiliation is by definition the process of making someone more humble. As a result, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the process of humiliation."

"I'm done talking to you, you're unreasonable," Tamin said as she turned around to face the small room's exit again. "Braxien might be unable to speak out because of what you're doing, but I can. I'm sure this guild has some rule against blackmailing others, and I'm certain there are rules against whatever you're doing to him in your room."

"Oh, are you now?" Yuki asked Tamin.

"Yes, yes I am," Tamin said as she took another step forward.

"Relying upon the same guild administration that put Locke in a harness? Alright. I wonder if they're also the type that would give a runaway kid like you back to their not-so-nice parents."

Tamin walking stopped, and her heart stopped for a moment at the same time. What Yuki just said was far too specific to be a random guess, but it was information that Tamin had kept under close lock and key. Surprise stirred through her that Yuki would know such information, fear stirred through her that the guildmasters would learn as well and do exactly what Yuki had described. She had no idea how Yuki learned such information, but she did remember she was still a good liar.

"...What the heck are you talking about?" Tamin said in the greatest confused tone she could muster while turning around.

"Ah, trying out that silver tongue of yours?" Yuki asked in response.

"No, I genuinely have no idea what you're talking about. My parents have always supported me, including when I moved once I got old enough."

"I must admit, you're quite the nice liar. It's such a shame that it's a trait you can't advertise, because a smart guildmaster would kill to have someone of your caliber! Lov-al-ly trade to have expertise in."

"I still have no clue what you're referring to. Are you thinking of someone else? Not the first time I've been confused for another before," Tamin continued to attempt to bluff herself out of the situation.

"Going from lying about your age to lying about this. Not exactly progression, but I wouldn't call it the skill decaying either. It is clever of you to exercise that talent of yours through, as it really is something, I tell you." Yuki continued on. "Hey, maybe when they figure out the meds your parents put you on, they can get you back on that stuff and that'll fix you up real quick.

Tamin was left both dumbfounded and fearful. Her heart missed another beat as she realized her lies weren't working in that circumstance, and her demeanor changed as swiftly as the forms of a morpeko.

"How the hell did you find out?" Tamin asked aggressively as she stepped forward and grabbed Yuki by the fur around her neck.

"My bedroom is directly above yours. A few days ago you invited Locke and you both got into hammocks and talked to each other. I heard every word you two said through that thin floor," Yuki explained, not reacting to the threatening way Tamin was grabbing her at all. "Careful with me now, attack me and you'll end up like how Locke did."

Tamin seemed to ignore what Yuki said and tightened her grip whilst pulling the vulpix a few centimeters forward. "You planned this all out, didn't you," she said.

"You're not the only one in this guild who knows how to eavesdrop, sweetie. Although it does seem like I'm the only one who knows how to put two-and-two together here," Yuki said, smiling. "Anyways, you do have me in a grapple, so if you truly hate me you're welcome to hit me. I won't even so much as fight back if you do, go ahead and beat me to a blu-dee-pulp and till I can't even scream anymore. Let's see what the guild thinks of it when the friend of the berserker injures a vulpix who didn't even touch her. Bet it'll end up for you just like it did for the feral."

Hearing what she was saying, Tamin released her grip and took a step back. The tables had turned so much and so quickly the change could be felt like walking into a cold winter night after spending days inside a warm building.

"Good girl," Yuki quickly uttered.

"You baited me here, didn't you?" Tamin asked, still stern but with quickly dissolving resolve.

"Yes and no. I wanted to talk to you about this for a few days now, but hadn't found the opportunity to get into the private conversation I needed. But when I saw you peeking over that corner, I saw an oppor-tuni-tee. And if there's one thing that you best get into your head quickly here: it's that I don't let opportunities simply pass by."

Tamin didn't reply immediately, she couldn't with all the thoughts flowing through her mind. She grabbed her shoulder and her head tilted downwards and sideways towards the bottom of the tight room, her ears and tail lowered.

"What do you want?" she asked, her voice far from stoic. "Just tell me,"

"Well, as fun as Braixen is and the feeling of doing that with someone who once saw you as weaker, I cannot deny that it is awk-ward doing all that I do with someone who towers several times higher than me. But with you- someone of quite the similar size to I- it'll be multiple flavors of exquisite to be more precise and dominating."

"So you plan to blackmail me with my past just like you've been doing with Braixen?" Tamin asked.

"You're catching on quite nicely. Had it been that wild shinx in your spot I feel he'd be slower at this," Yuki said.

"He's not wild!"

"Shush, shush. Even when we're secluded you are not to raise your voice."

"Why the hell do you even gain enjoyment from this stuff? What do you have planned for me? tell me."

"For your second question, I would prefer not to ruin any surprises. For your first, I've found there to be many fascinating observations I have gotten with humiliation and breaking down others.

Ego is a curious thing. Most things become stronger the larger they become, it is significantly harder to break an iron ball that is five meters wide then it is to break one that is one meter wide. Yet in ego's case, the larger it gets, the more fragile it seems to become. Intriguing phenomenon, I'm telling you, And I savor every time I get to witness it."

"Ego is a luxury that I wish I had."

"Then if you've got nothing to lose then you've got nothing to dread either,"

"I'm not going to partake in whatever messed up stuff you are doing to Braixen," Tamin said with rising anxiety in her voice, only barely managing to stay within Yuki's rule of not raising her voice.

"The choice is quite simple: me or your parents, you'll have to choose one or the other," Yuki explained. "Play along and keep quiet or I'll tell Niot and Espeon all about your actual past. Don't think unbelievability will get you out of this either, I can do wonders for scrounging up evidence."

Tamin's paws rose to grab the side of her head, her heart raced and her mind spun around. "How the hell did I get myself in this situation? How do I get out? Can I get out?" were all questions that danced around her mind at a panicked pace too quick for her to be able to actually ponder on each of them. Stress rose more and more, and as it did Yuki still sat in the same place she was, smiling devilishly at another one of her cunning plans. But before panic could totally set it, a realization came to her that blew away that cloud of stress.

"Hang on one second," Tamin said, "If you tell others about my past and age, then I can just immediately tell them about the blackmailing you're doing to Braixen and me. Once it's already known, you don't have anything left to hold against me. So it's mutual."

"Hmm, perhaps. But are you really willing to take that chance?" Yuki asked. "It goes both ways, if you tell them about what I'm doing then I can just tell them everything about you. I'm sure you still have some sense of justice lingering in you, but is stopping me really worth it?

Winter is coming oh so very soon, see. That would be a terrible, terrible time to get kicked out of the guild. At the end of the day, while you might get your kicks from 'stopping' me, you're still going to have to do what I say if you don't want anything bad to befall you."

"I think it's been established that bad things will befall me either way. But my point is that this isn't entirely one-sided, I have some dirt on you just like you have some on me."

"Yes, yes, in a sense. Of course, this entire conversation is under the presumption that your real age and what your parents did are the only secrets I know. I've eavesdropped on many guild members and have secrets in my mind about all of them, and Locke has been in the guild just as long as you have. Tell me, if I know your secrets even though you are far quieter than that shinx is, then what do you think I have on Locke? I could ruin him as well if you try to ruin me, and is it really justice at all at that point?"

"I can tell you're lying," Tamin stated straight forward, basing her conclusion off of the vulpix's tone of voice and mannerisms.

"Am I now? For all you know, I could be just as good of a liar as you are," she said, still smug.

"No, I know what you are, and a good liar isn't quite part of it," Tamin said. "What you are is a sadist, what you want is for me to get down on my knees and beg for mercy. You want me to desperately try and trigger some sort of empathy buried within you that in reality has long since left. You want me to be a little toy that freaks out and panics, reluctant to do anything you ask me to and hopelessly fights back.

What you want me to do is victimize myself. But no, I'm not going to do any of that, because that will only give you satisfaction. And if you're going to force me through this, I am going to deny you of every little bit of pleasure I can.

I doubt you ever had any empathy to begin with."

For the first time in the entire conversation, Yuki was taken aback and her eyes widened.

"Well, you're the sassy one, aren't you?" she said, her dominus being broken. "Certainly fussier than Braixen was. Maybe I shouldn't complain, though. That just gives me more to break down."

"Whatever, I'm going to leave now," Tamin said while throwing up her arms in an 'I give up' sort of gesture.

The minccino turned around and began walking away again.

"Wait, you can't go," Yuki said, "Remember, I can tell others the truth if you defy me and have dis-re-gard."

"Oh really now? You have me in your pocket and you're willing to expose me over me just leaving this room, before you have gotten me to do anything you actually want me to do?" Tamin asked.

"Fair point," Yuki said, "Just act like this conversation never happened. You are not to tell anyone else about these things, nor are you to speak to Braixen at all."

Tamin turned her head away again and began walking off, this time unobstructed. Leaving the vulpix behind entirely, Tamin went back over her route and went the way she came to the room from, retracing almost every step she took. Going through the maddening hallways of frustrating details once again, into the guild lounge and then upstairs. Along the way, she went through plans in her head on what to do next, and by the time she reached the main floor she had reached a point where she was somewhat confident about her immediate future.

While at the main floor, she searched around to look for one pokemon whilst rehearsing her plan in her mind. It didn't take too terribly long, as she saw Scampi the rockruff looking out of the windows and counting the snowflakes that fell.

"Hey Scampi?" Tamin called out to her.

"Uh? Oh hi Tami!" Scampi said as she turned around to see Tamin.

"Hi Scampi! I was wondering if you could do a favor for me?" Tamin asked, thinking about how the roles were seemingly reversed and it was her approaching Scampi this time while conversing.

"What is it!?" Scampi asked.

"Could you go on a mission with me? Like, right now?"

"Uh could we have lunch first? It's less than an hour away."

"Oh, of course. We'll just head out right after." Tamin told her.

"Sounds great! Can do!"

"Thanks a lot!" Tamin said back.

Once they were done talking, a single statement was left in Tamin's mind to echo. A little clever factoid she had figured out during her conversation with Yuki.

_"Yuki can't give me any orders or commands on what to do if I'm not in the guild at the same time as her."_ Tamin reminded herself in her head, _"So if I set up missions and schedule them properly, I can minimize the amount of time we're both at the guildhouse at the same time…"_

**End of chapter 14.**


	15. The Coming Storm

Tamin ate her breakfast quietly, still managing to be secluded and unambiguous despite being with many others at the meal table. Any observer would have their eyes glance over her like she was part of a backdrop.

She hadn't gotten as much sleep as she normally did, and tried to shake off her tiredness. Overnight her mind was kept awake by thinking of what to do with her newfound conflict with Yuki, exploring many different things she could do, how those plans could potentially go wrong, and the different contingencies if those did go wrong. All together, it was an expanding tree of plans with branches breaking off into more branches. Even while she sat at breakfast, she was still scheming out ideas in her head.

While complex plans might seem better simply due to their complexity, Tamin knew simple plans are often the more rational ones as the fewer amount of variables involved means the fewer amount of things that could potentially go wrong. With that in mind, she rehearsed her simple plans in her head. _"Yuki cannot force me to do things if we aren't in the same place, so I can avoid being in the same place with her at the same time, then I can largely circumvent the blackmailing altogether._

_I have seen on previous days that Yuki goes off on missions right after lunch like most members here do. Therefore, I can depart on a mission right after breakfast and be off on that whilst Yuki is still at the guild. She will then stay there for a few hours before she departs on her own mission in the afternoon._

_Provided our missions do not have drastically different lengths, I will then get back to the guildhouse several hours before Yuki does, which gives me a few free hours to be free to do what I want. By the time Yuki gets back, I could duck out and spend time in town instead, as the odds of her finding me throughout all of town are low and akin to finding a needle in a haystack if I play my cards right. The plan isn't foolproof and won't completely eliminate the time spent with her, but will greatly reduce it and it is not mutually exclusive with other plans I can execute._

_It's funny how I used this to establish a better routine for myself. Or, more like a rouse-tine this time around, heh. Routines are always nice."_

Finishing up with her meal, the minccino hopped down from her seat and picked out the ideal mission at the questboard. She had to wait a few minutes for more guild members to finish eating, but it wasn't too long before she could begin asking around for who could come along with her.

The first pokemon she turned to was Scampi, as Tamin knew the rockruff and her rather hasty nature would make it so she would willingly join Tamin quite easily. As it would turn out, she was right. But as Scampi joined her, she suggested that they also take a Ludicolo from the guild along as well that she had become friends with. Tamin didn't know anything about Ludicolo, but wouldn't mind bringing him along nonetheless. He was indeed willing to join, but did so with a far overly enthusiastic "let's go on an adventure!" that Tamin could immediately tell that she'd get annoyed by him quickly. As more and more Pokemon left the guild, a fourth pokemon was harder to find to join her team. Tamin did initially want Locke to join, but as she looked around without any sight of him around, she thought that he was away with Dewott doing Arceus-knows-what. So instead, she had Nidorino join her purely by virtue of him being the only one to accept the request.

With the team of four composed, they all readied themselves and departed from the guildhouse. Tamin kept quiet to avoid the others learning her true intentions behind doing the mission so early, but Scampi and Ludicolo were not nearly as quiet. _"It'll be a long journey," _she muttered in her head as she, Scampi, Ludicolo and Nidoran departed while the golden light of the morning still shined over the land.

As for those who remained at the guildhouse, they mostly carried on as normal. The nocturnals headed off to bed, the diurnals gathered in the downstairs lounge to hang out, almost all was normal and unaware of any blackmailing and scheming happening in the background. Indeed, they all continued on with their typical routines. At least, they did so for another hour after Tamin had departed.

Niot had been in the foyer, pacing around silently as he worked through thoughts. It was then where the main doors of the guildhouse began opening up, and Niot turned his head to look at what was happening. As he did, he saw an absol who certainly was not a member of the guild. She did not have a scarf around her neck and instead had a brass pocket watch to decorate herself. Of course, it wasn't uncommon for a client to come into the guild to provide a mission request, nor were absol foriegn to the local region. Thus, Niot didn't see anything as abnormal from this event, so he greeted it with his usual formalities.

"Hello there, have you come to deliver a mission request?"

"No, I have come here to deliver a different message," the absol responded, her formality matched Niot's.

"What is it you need to say?" Niot said, surprised that she wasn't a client but not letting that surprise reach his face.

"I would like to speak with the guildmaster, if that is possible," she said.

"I shall summon him then."

The chatot left the foyer to head to the guildmaster office while the absol patiently waited in the foyer. Fast forward a minute's time, and Niot returned with Espeon beside him.

"Hey," Espeon said, not reaching the same levels of formality, "what'd you want to say?"

"Yes, my name is 'Eno' and I come from the absol colony in the mountains not far to the north of here. We have sensed that a massive snowstorm is coming to the region very soon, so we have been going out to warn other settlements about that."

"Wait, what?" Espeon asked in surprise.

"Based off of the disaster senses from me and many other absol from the colony, it feels it's going to be about ten centimeters of snow, and will have windchill as well. It'll likely start around one in the afternoon, and continue until roughly ten hours," Eno continued to specify.

"Noon? It is coming noon today and none of you warned us earlier when we had much more time to prepare?" Niot said, getting angry out of stress.

"Apologies, for we are not oracles. The storm appears to have been suddenly formed by the abilities of other pokemon (dragonair have always been a nuisance) so the shift in environment happened instantly rather than gradually over time. It is for this reason that we were unable to forewarn you earlier, as it was physically impossible to tell it would happen before those pokemon used their powers to form the storm, there was simply no indication of it yesterday."

"What do you recommend we do about that?" Espeon asked.

"It will have to be up to you to figure out, I only volunteered to be a harbinger to warn others about it. I assume this hasn't been the first time your guild has had to deal with a storm, though."

Eno reached with one of her front paws to her neck, grabbed the brass pocket watch, and opened it up to gaze at the position of the clock hands. After looking for a few second, she closed it while closing her eyes the same time it shut.

"It is eighteen-past-eight right now, so you'll have just under five hours before the snow fall begins, though the wind has already started its gradual acceleration. Now if you excuse me, I need to join some of my fellow absol and warn the town so they can prepare themselves as well. Farewell."

Eno turned around and left through the main doors again, leaving Espeon and Niot behind as they were side-by-side and facing her direction. As the doors shut, their eyes shifted to look at each other.

"We need to warn everyone now," Espeon said.

"Agreed," Niot responded.

They split up and began a rush to get everyone together. Espeon rang he meal bell to send a signal to rally the ranks of the guild together, and the mess hall was converted into a makeshift meeting a few chairs stacked atop one another to create a high point for Espeon to stand at, it was in that room that they relayed the information from Eno to everyone.

The guildmaster made sure to sparse his speech with "please stay calm" and "let's not panic", whilst still parsing the information from Eno onto them and what they needed to do. Of course, crowds are always inherently more panic-y than individuals, so when the meeting was dismissed it was in a frenzy that they left. Some knew from previous winters what the proper actions were, some did not.

The first concern the guild had was to get the treehouse building secure and weathered due to it being less insulated and less prepared to stand against the natural elements. Over half the guild worked on that in specific, taking materials from the downstairs storages to properly weather every window and otherwise weak point.

The walls and roof of the guildhouse were scrutinized to find any holes that cold could seep in from. Their studies found that it actually didn't need much improvement, and the greenhouse was fine to survive the winter in the state it was in. The second story porches were blocked off entirely with insulation, and transparent wrap were applied to the windows.

Almost every member tried to lend in some help, and as time went on worry fell as well as progress was being made. Individual touches were applied as well, and Dewott used it as a chance to challenge both Mienfoo and Locke on who could get more work done.

Hunter had the worst time out of anyone who was present in the guildhouse. He was still trapped in the solitary confinement room from what he had done to Locke, so he was alone with little knowledge of the outside world as he heard chaos unfold above him. He was left clueless as to what all the footsteps running around were about, so in that blank room his mind filled in those gaps with dark thoughts, like a child who imagined monsters inside the house when they heard things go bump in the night. The trickster was not usually one to let these irrational thoughts get to him, but the effects of solitude was one that took great resolve to resist.

He was left to fantasize about what the scurrying around was about for one hour. It wasn't long before Sylveon realized that the forty-eight hours he had to spend in that room was over, so he went down to retrieve the zorua from the confinement. Never before had Hunter been more relieved to have one of his punishments be over.

With the clock reaching eleven-thirty in the morning, the reinforcements had reached a state where they would be deemed complete by most. Once more, they were rallied together in the mess hall and Espeon got up on his stand to address the guild. This time, delivering his speech with an aura of hope rather than stress.

"Men, I must applaud you all for this. While we had such short notice to prepare, you have worked diligently to make the most out of all of it. With both power and persistence, you have made this building safe again so that we are able to endure this coming storm-"

"Does this mean we can go to sleep now?" A murkrow asked.

"I think I want to see what this storm is before I nod off," Crystal responded to them. "Clearly it's something special if we've gotten all this hyping up for it."

"Not yet," Espeon said, getting derailed from the speech. "Before we dismiss officially, it is necessary for us to do a headcount, as we must ensure no one is left behind in the cold. As you're losing your patience, let me just go ahead and start that now.

Ahem. Umbreon?"

"Here…"

"Sylveon?"

"Right here."

"Niot?"

"Present."

"Sebastien?"

"I'm safe, don't worry."

"Rustin?"

"Here."

"Armin?"

"Here…"

One by one, Espeon called out to the guildmembers. One by one, they confirmed their presence. But as he rehearsed the roster off from memory, it began to be discovered that there were holes in it, individuals who were not present. First it was Nidoran who was found to not be present, then Ludicolo, then Scampi, and then Tamin. Their names were called several times and everyone there looked around for them, but their lack of presence was only further confirmed. Instead of a hard dismissal, they softly scattered around to search for the missing members. They hoped that they had just missed the call to regroup and were in some corner of the guild, but the fact that exactly four were missing and they were not seen in the previous hours made it clear to everyone what had actually happened, even if only subconsciously. Some saw the four prepare to head off for a mission, so that lead was checked out. Seeing what missions were taken but not finished, they found the exact mission: an expedition into the mountains to quell a mystery dungeon full of dragonair.

"This is really bad," Espeon said as they read off the missions.

"North is where the storm is coming from, so it will hit them before it hits us," Niot said.

"The mystery dungeon is a cavern, so if they reach that they could wait out the storm in there. No snow or windchill in there," Rustin argued.

"No. It's a mission that is a short distance away, so they probably don't have the proper camping equipment. Even if they can avoid hypothermia in the short term, that doesn't mean they can stake out the full storm in the long term," Espeon said. "We're going to have to send out a rescue team to get them back from the storm."

"I'll do it!" Locke announced boldly.

All who were in the room turned their heads to the shinx to look at him. Despite many eyes looming down on him, he held his ground and confidence.

"I'll go out there in the storm to get Tamin and the others back," Locke said.

The entire room was looking at Locke. The first time he had all the attention going towards him was when he first joined and was positive. The second time was when he went ferocious inside of the guildhouse, causing him to be put into a harness, and was negative. This time: most of the guild members didn't quite know what to think of him.

"I should help you then," Froslass said as she came closer to Locke. "Since I levitate, I will be able to scout out the region much better. And because of my ice typing, the cold doesn't really bother me anyways."

"Great, thanks for the help," Locke said.

"You're going to me as well for this mission," Yuki said as she stepped out of the crowd towards them.

Even though he was friendly towards Froslass, he was far less so towards Yuki. Even if he couldn't articulate it into words, his gut instinct told him there was something deeply off about Yuki and her actual intentions on joining. The memories of when Yuki held him in a net also came to recollection and allowed him to put more rationality to his distrust. "I don't trust you enough to let you come along," he said bluntly in front of others.

"Now I don't think you're being reasonable about this. My internal flame not only allows me to keep myself warm in this storm, but also keep others warm as well. Even if I will have less heat left to channel into my attacks, I am still perfectly suited for this mission that is a test of survival skills and endurance rather than combat prowess," Yuki argued. Her desire to not have Tamin be lost was genuine, but unlike Locke who was wanting to keep a friend, she was wanting to keep someone she had in her pocket.

"She is right, her assistance will be useful and it would be cold to refuse her volunteering offer," Froslass said.

"...Fine," Locke spoke begrudgingly.

"A team of three would be fine for rescuing from the outdoors, adding more members won't make it easier to survive the cold. Start getting ready right now, I'll help by getting your bags prepared," Espeon said. "Now go, we are running on borrowed time as is."

They nodded in agreement, and headed off. For the next twenty minutes, they got larger backpacks than what they usually used and got it packed up to the brim. Blankets, fireseeds, cold remedies, three times the usual amount of flares they usually used, and tinder kits. They were granted permission to eat lunch early as waiting would be an egregious waste of time, which resulted in Froslass and Yuki still maintaining high etiquette while Locke ravenously feasted down.

While they ate in the guild kitchen, Sylveon approached them while carrying some clothing at his side.

"Hey Locke, do you have a moment to spare?" Sylveon asked the shinx.

Locke turned to face him, but his mouth was still chewing food as he did. It took him a few seconds to break down what he had in his mouth and swallow the grub.

"What is it?"

"I got my old coat from storage," Sylveon said as he put his feelers in front of him to show he was holding a brown and dusty coat. "I figured you will need it far more than I do with what you're about to undergo."

Locke brought his paw forward to inspect the coat, seeing that it was from designs from years past but was well kept with any hole being well sewn shut.

"Sorry if it's a bit small for you, it was made for an eevee after all," Sylveon said as Locke continued to look. "Although it was a bit of a chubby eevee, heheh."

"Do I have to wear this?" Locke said in an unfavorable manner, thinking of the time Sylveon told him he had to wear the harness.

"No, it is not required. But with the blizzard it will be helpful. If it's the harness you're thinking about, then the coat will actually cover that up nicely."

"Huh… alright," Locke said as he fully took the coat. "I can get this on myself, even if it's be a squeeze."

"Understood. Say, you can just keep that coat for yourself. I won't be having kids to give it anyways and there's no way I can use it myself."

"Uh, okay then."

"Mhm."

They finished getting food in their bellies, coats around their chest, and well packed bags on their backs. The trio had become fully prepared, but in the process the outdoors had become unforgiving. Any strand of blue still in the skies had disappeared as an endless blanket of white overtook the skies. The leafless branches of the trees swayed strongly in the oppressive gale. Even without stepping outside themselves, just looking out the windows at the dancing snow could impart goosebumps. Locke, Yuki, and Froslass were right in front of the recently insulated main doors of the guild and mentally preparing themselves for what was to come while Espeon stood back, not far behind.

"Are all three of you ready for this rescue?" Espeon asked them.

"More than," Locke said.

"Shouldn't be harder than a normal expedition for me," Froslass said.

"A-firm-a-tive," Yuki said.

"And you all have maps of the mountains where they are?" Espeon asked.

The three all confirmed.

"Alright. Don't have too much pressure on you as that will affect your performance, but do stay safe out there. Find the four, heal them so they don't have hypothermia, and return home as a group.

Every second you spend here the storm worsens, so you best head off now. I pray for all of you."

The three nodded in agreement, and opened the doors to leave. The door opened seamlessly, and doing so greeted them with a sudden rush of cold air that their bodies weren't adapted for after spending so long in a room temperature building. Shutting the door proved to be far more difficult as the gale wind pushed against it from the side to try to keep it open. Immediately, the danger showed its hand, and they knew this was only the start of it. Once the door was shut again, they walked around the structure to begin their journey northbound.

A long, straight road led from the guildhouse to the mountains up north that were several kilometers away. Each of them walked forward in line at a steady pace as the chill and wind got to them. They headed for the mountains in hopes that would offer protection from the winds once they got there, but they knew that also meant for harder to navigate terrain. But still stalwart, they marched on.

"Hang out there, Tamin. I'm coming for you," Locke muttered as they walked.

_"You're not getting away from me like this, sweetie," Yuki_ thought to herself.

**End of chapter 15.**


	16. Diamond Dust

"C'mon guys! We can brave through these winds if we just push on!" Ludicolo optimistically declared to the team.

"Right on!" Scampi yelled. "Together we can get through anything!"

"If we have to bare through this cold, can we at least do it without all the yelling?" Tamin asked in an annoyed tone, not reflecting the same optimism.

"I second that," Nidorino agreed with Tamin as the team continued trying to walk against the wind.

"C'mon guys, you have to get into the team spirit!" Ludicolo cold Tamin and Nidorino.

"Yeah!" Scampi cheered on. "Sing with me, everyone! What's gonna work? Team-work! What's gonna work? Team-work-"

"What's gonna work? Team-work!" Ludicolo joined in.

As the singing continued, Tamin and Nidorino rolled their eyes so hard that it came close to damaging their eyeballs. As their line of sight drew elsewhere, they saw white particles dancing around in the wind. It was a blur, but clearly present as it seems to fly around, but was destined for the ground.

"Is it snowing out here?" Nidorino asked.

The group stopped to inspect it closer, and with perfect timing a few of the flakes landed right in front of them and on their noses. Each of them got to inspect the individual flakes closer, seeing the unique hexagonal patterns on each of them. They then turned their gaze upwards, to see the much more white snow above them and clouds that had turned grey.

"This can't be good..." Tamin said to the group.

* * *

An hour after the four first began seeing the snow, Locke, Yuki, and Froslass entered the mountain range. The amplified terrain stood fall taller than they did, making them feel feeble in comparison. The mighty natural structures did serve to partially shield them from the gale, but it presented a far different challenge of rough terrain that was harder to climb up and navigate with more effort required to scale the slopes. Froslass was the least affected as she levitated over it all, but the team as a whole was still slowed down as they had to stay together.

"How far away do you think they are?" Locke asked while pushing on.

"Considering they left several hours before us, it should still be several hours until we find them," Froslass answered.

"It'll be a hard trek for us no matter what," Yuki said, walking slightly ahead of Locke and behind Froslass in the marching order.

"Do you think we'll get into any fights out here?" Froslass asked, more concerned about combat than the cold as she was naturally resistant.

"I doubt it," Locke said. "Wild pokemon have good instincts, so they wouldn't wander out of their dungeons when it's in the middle of a storm. This is the time they're going to stay inside where they won't get frozen."

"Fair enough, I'll trust the wild pokemon to know what wilds are like," Yuki said.

"Hey, excuse me?" Locke asked, offended.

"What? You've shown yourself to be more than savage with how many times you've attacked members of the guild, so it just makes sense that you'd know what your relatives are like," Yuki said while turning her head to look at Locke closer.

"That's not what I am!" he yelled at her.

"Actions speak louder than words, sweetie," Yuki said with a sly smile, exactly the kind Hunter would make

"...I am glad that I didn't expect anything good to come from you," Locke said, exhausted.

"Better watch your words, shinx. I have a leash in my bag and the middle of a snow storm to keep you from getting lost would be the prime time to use it," Yuki continued.

"Let's not get into a juvenile argument," Froslass interjected. "We've just gotten to the mountains, so we don't want to start hating each other before things start to get truly bad."

"Yes please," Locke said.

"Fair enough," Yuki said. "If we're going to have lighter subjects instead, then I will say that I did manage to do one last supply run for Hunter and I before the snow came. Quite glad I did that, as I don't think the stores will be easy to access now."

"That's nice, I suppose," Froslass said, not really caring and focusing on navigation.

"Wait, what kind of supplies could you be getting?" Locke questioned, "We're already fed by the guild."

"Oh, Hunter has some sche-ma-tics and plans for alcohol-based bottle rockets that he's been working at for awhile, so I got everything he believes he will need for that," Yuki answered.

"I don't fully know what that is, but that sounds very dangerous and dumb," Locke stated.

"Oh yeah. But I don't feel particularly interested in stopping him," the vulpix said.

Locke gave a strange look, but then turned away, as he didn't have more to add.

The group paced forward for longer, staying mostly silent and only looking around for Tamin and the others. The wind gradually got more intense, the snow got more dense with particles falling down onto them, and the temperature got more frigid. Locke found Sylveon's coat to be a godsend with how warm it managed to keep his chest, while Yuki had her internal flame to heat her up and the coldness was similar to Froslass' normal body temperature, so she was unaffected.

Due to their marching order and Yuki being in front of Locke, whenever he got close she would often take that as an opportunity to brush her tails against his face in a teasing way, and giggle at Locke's reaction to it. She would do that every few minutes, gradually increasing Locke's frustration at this mildly inappropriate act until he began considering biting her tails in retaliation, but he held that desire back and didn't act on it. Locke would instead watch his distance to make sure he wasn't within range of her tails, and wouldn enter in range if she suddenly slowed down walking.

Minutes turned to hours in the storm, and the whistling of wind between mountain passes drowned out other sounds. One hour in and they sent off a flare straight into the skies to make them visible in hopes they would be seen by the ones they were rescuing, and they systematically sent off another flare into the white skies every thirty minutes thereafter. They also served the purpose of illuminating and keeping things visible, which was invaluable as their surroundings gradually got more and more monocolored as the snow built up. An hour and a half in, they did make the decision to clip the leash onto Locke's harness by wiring it down the neck of the coat. While Locke would normally be saddened by the loss of freedom, that was one time where he couldn't be against it, as the idea of getting lost from the group in the middle of the blizzard was a far more concerning one. He would have preferred a single rope that they all held to instead, but keeping attached to Yuki was an acceptable alternative. Landmarks were few and far between, and the snow made it harder to see the few that did exist. Their only hopes were to stick to the manmade road to keep a sense of direction, but even then, the accumulating snow made that harder to see.

Moral was dropping as the temperature was. Two-and-a-half hours in, and they were miserable. Inevitably, disagreements would come to them as they could not be prolonged forever.

"Are you sure you don't want me to warm you up, Locke?" Yuki asked.

"Yes Yuki, I'm sure," Locke responded.

"Aww, sure you're sure?" Yuki asked, "I am a fire type, I could easily warm you right back up to normal if you just asked."

"Yes! I am absolutely sure," Locke raised his voice.

"What's got you so upset? You are shivering, and I'm just reaching out a helping hand, 'tis nothing more."

"Because I don't need you, and I don't like you," Locke shouted. "You've taken Hunter's side every time, pulled a net from under me, and you're part of the reason I am in a harness! I don't know why you're so insistent to help me, I don't know what trap you- I don't know if you're trying to get me into your debt or something like that, but I'm not allowing it. Just back off."

"Now I think you need to calm down there, pal. This is a team effort, afterall," Yuki said, trying her best to paint herself as the more reasonable among them.

"Yuki's right," Froslass said. "Regardless of personal feuds, we need to get through this together."

"Oh for pete sakes, c'mon…" Locke said in frustration as both of them were against him. Since he could feel he wasn't going to win an argument, he stayed quiet.

By staying silent, the group got to hear the sounds among them more. Like for most of the journey, just the sounds of strong, whistling winds in a seemingly infinite direction from all around them sounded off. But in this moment where they did not talk, Locke's large ears heard a different sound permeate in the skies above them: the faint sound of an explosion buried in the wind.

"Wait, did anyone- did anyone else here that?" Locke asked.

"Hear what?" Froslass inquired.

"I heard the sound of an explosion, I think it was a flare going off!" Locke said.

"I think I might've heard that as well," Yuki said, backing up Locke's story.

"Yeah, that must be them! Come on, I heard it this way!"

Locke suddenly ran off in the direction he heard it come from, which yanked at the leash and forced Yuki to move with him to avoid losing grip of the leash. Locke trudged forward, slightly off the beaten path and going up a slope, now at the front of the team.

The slope was a few meters high, and required a decent bit of effort to scale. More climbing than walking with its angle. Froslass got to the top first, and Locke got up not much later. As they got to the vantage point and could look down from it, they could see familiar faces not too far away. It was Tamin, Nidorino, Scampi, and Ludicolo. They were backtracking down the road to go back in the direction of the guild, and each of them were heavily shivering from being chilled to the bone.

"There they are!" Locke called out, cheerful for the first time on the trip.

The three climbed down from the point and began running as fast as they could to the four. The group also saw them coming, so they began walking towards them as well. Finally, the seven all got together.

"Tamin!" Locke declared.

"L-L-Locke?" Tamin asked, her paws put around her and her teeth chattering from the chill.

"We've come to rescue you from the storm," Locke replied to them.

"T-t-thanks," Tamin managed to stutter out.

"Yes, we came to ensure you wouldn't be lost," Yuki said while stepping out from behind Locke.

"Oh-oh, y-you c-came as well. G-g-great," Tamin said as her heart dropped at seeing the vulpix. She still managed to be sarcastic despite being cold to the bone.

"Mhm. Anyways, we brought blankets," Froslass stated.

The seven all stopped at that part in the mountains and began sharing what supplies they had. Tamin, Nidorino, Scampi, and Ludicolo were wrapped up in blankets, which didn't have immediate effect due to being exposed to the cold themselves for a long time, but fire seeds did have immediate affect and provide them with a sense of warmth they had missed for several long hours. Ludicolo was the most affected from the cold, his color had already begun changing from the blizzard, so he was given the most cloth to warm up.

After the reunion, the group of now seven began journeying back to the guildhouse. But the storm did not halt its pace during the time they spent rallying together; it only kept growing worse.

Walking with the wind instead of against the wind made traveling significantly easier, but their conditions weren't improving as they were still exposed to the cold. Goosebumps were across all of their bodies, far more so with the four that were exposed to the storm for longer. The rescuers remember the objectives Espeon had given them, that they aren't just to return with them but also restore them. Keeping to this command, they looked around for any small cave or alcoves that offered shelter from the windchill and snow. Froslass went further up into the air in spots where she wouldn't be blown away to scout around for such a location.

It took a few minutes of looking around, with their eyes stinging as it felt like the fluids in their eyes were freezing. But as she scouted around, Froslass was able to locate an area in the hills that was perfect. It was an alcove that went several meters deep into the mountain side, tall enough to house all of them and large enough that someone inside would shelter from 300 degrees around them. The abrasive stone wasn't comforting, but it was better than the pervasive dangers outside. Froslass came out from the alcove and lit off a flare right outside of it, and not too much later the other six came to her location and saw what she was signaling to.

Tamin, Nidorino, Scampi, and Ludicolo went to the deepest part of the place and sat down with their blankets, still badly shivering. Locke, Yuki, and Froslass stood closer in the entrance from them. While they all would have loved to wait out the storm in that modest shelter, they also knew they still needed to get back to the guildhouse.

"We need to build a fire for them," Locke stated.

"T-That would be nice," Nidorino said.

"There are some roots sticking out from the top of this place," Locke said while pointing towards the ceiling. "Could you grasp those, Froslass?"

"Of course," she said, her tone not making it any less ambiguous on whether she was being sarcastic or not.

She went up to the top of the alcove, grabbed the roots, and pulled at them. It took a few seconds of pulling with her subpar strength and trying to work at it from different angles, but she managed to get the roots out. She came down with them and set them in a pile in front of the four in blankets.

"Alright, good. I'm going out to collect from grass for tinder, I can get a small fire started using that by biting it and shocking it with electricity, we can then continue tossing some more grass to build the fire up until the roots-"

Yuki breathed fire on the roots to set them ablaze. The firelight illuminated the alcove more, and a beloved warmth was finally known again.

"Or that…"

They extended their hands out to the fire. Meager as it was, the heat was still priceless to them. For one minute, it was all they focused on, and they could finally stop shivering and hold back their teeth chattering. Still chilled, but with hypothermia put at bay.

"We should gather some more wood for the fire," Froslass commented.

"One second," Nidorino stated.

Nidorino reached into his bags, and from them he withdrew an iron pot. "We can boil some water with this."

"That would be helpful for restoring everyone," Froslass said.

"I know of some herbs that usually grow in these mountains. If we get those, we could make some light soup for everyone to share and warm up to," Locke said.

"You guys can collect that, I think I'll get the firewood. I have some more body strength than Froslass does," Yuki said.

"I know of those herbs as well, I can easily go around the mountain sides to collect those," Froslass stated.

"Yeah. I can get a little of both," Locke commented.

"Sh-shouldn't you stay here?" Scampi asked.

"Huh?" Locke asked.

"Yeah, there should probably be someone watching them right now, and you're the one that isn't as resistant to the cold as Froslass or I," Yuki stated.

"But-" Locke tried to argue, but couldn't find the words to do so. He didn't want to have to rely on others for tasks such as this, but at the same time, he knew that the four who were deeply chilled probably shouldn't be left behind if something bad happened. "...Fine," Locke admitted.

"Well, at least you know the command to stay~" Yuki commented.

Yuki and Froslass split up to leave the alcove, leaving Locke behind with the others. The shinx went closer to the fire and the others.

"Th-thanks for staying, Locke," Tamin said as he sat down.

"Right…" Locke said, still not having the idea of relying on Yuki and Froslass sitting well with him.

"H-hey don't be so c-coldhearted, y-you've got to be more ch-chill about this," Tamin said, her chattering teeth ruining any timing her jokes had.

"I suppose… Well, we're together now."

"Yeah, that's nice. No wait no, I-I meant to say that's cool."

"I'm not sure I'm in the mood for this," Nidorino interjected.

"No wait, n-_ice_. That actually could be a pun by itself," Tamin said, putting strong emphasis on certain syllables.

"How many hypothermia-touched minds does it take to make some kinda bad puns?" Locke asked.

"I like your- your jokes are great, Tamin!" Scampi said.

"It's a trick question, it doesn't take any hypothermia to make those puns."

They talked with each other for longer as Yuki and Froslass scavenged. The flame gradually ran out of fuel and became dimmer, but their spirits became brighter.

"Hey Locke, you still have that leash with you?" Tamin asked him.

"Yeah, why?"

"Hand it to me. I don't believe it's in the rules that the one who has it ever has to give it to someone else, so if I hold it then I'm keeping it away from Yuki," Tamin suggested.

"I like the way you thinking," Locke said as he presented the handle to her.

"We're back," Froslass said as she and Yuki came back to the alcove.

"Oh, hey," Locke said awkwardly.

More wood was added to the bonfire, building it up large enough that it would be considered a hazard if in a town. They scooped up snow into the iron pan and placed it on the fire so it could gradually be heated up into boiling and pure water. Once it was heated to a simmer, the herbs and other ingredients that had brought along in their packs were tossed into the pan to make the soup. The soup didn't have too many calories in it, but it was the event that made it so nice. By the top the pot was empty again, they had all been fully restored.

Now done, they gathered their equipment back into the packs and left the alcove. But the world outside did not look like the lands that were at the start of the day. A blanket of soft, white snow coated everything, and was deep enough that they would have to trudge through it to return home.

They got back into a single-file line, with Nidorino at the front as his size allowed him to get through the snow easily and leave a path behind for the others to follow. The comfort of the alcove was gone, and the harshness of the elements made its full return.

"Supposedly, Cinccino fur is good against extreme temperatures," Tamin said to the group, "so if anyone by chance spots a shiny stone, please tell me."

"I got you Tamin!" Scampi said, "We'll find you that shiny stone!"

"No, let's not get sidetracked for something we have very little chance of finding," Nidorino said."Just grit your teeth and bear through this."

"You know, you don't talk much and save your words for when it counts." Tamin said to Nidorino, "I like that."

"Thanks." Nidorino replied, completely straightforward and thankful.

The group continued to chat as they journeyed, Scampi being the biggest talker there, with Ludicolo being a tad too cold to talk. Locke, Yuki and Froslass talked a normal amount as they largely just responded to Scampi's endless flurry of words as she tried to hold a conversation. Tamin and Nidorino barely talked at all, instead choosing to just passively observe what the others said. But fifteen minutes after leaving the place, the wind kicked up again which made conversations die down. Their pace also slowed as well, as they needed to frequently ensure they were going in the correct direction as navigation was difficult when the cloud covered the sun and it was nothing but white in all directions.

"Do you think we should have stayed in that cave?" Scampi asked, being absolutely miserable and just wanting to be home again.

"I don't know," Tamin answered.

"Whatever shelter we find first, we'll rest there," Nidorino said.

"Wait a second guys, I see something in the snow," Locke stated as his head looked to his side.

"Well, what is it?" Froslass inquired.

"It's some pokemon. Three figures, and… I think they're coming towards us!"

Locke's statement provoked an instant reaction. They all faced the direction Locke was looking in and readied themselves. Yuki and Locke extended their claws, Tamin pulled out a flare in absence of a proper battle plan or techniques to defend herself, and Nidorino channeled venom to the tips of his claws.

"I do believe you said there wouldn't be any wild pokemon out in this weather, correct?" Yuki sarcastically asked Locke.

"They could be ice types themselves, or the sources of this weather," Locke replied.

"Who said we were wild, now?" the middle of the three figures said, speaking in a clearly feminine voice.

They got close enough so that they could be made out through the dancing snow. They were a trio of absol that were all clad in coats and winter supplies. Eno was at the center of them, her brass pocket watch still drooping down from her neck, and its metal frigid. To her left was a female absol were a cyan hairpin which was trying to retain a hair style that the storm had clearly already ruined and to Eno's right was a male absol with several bands around his forelegs.

"Who are you?" Scampi asked.

"We saw you being lost in the storm and I knew that you all were from the guild," Eno told them. "So a small party was organized to get you, and here we are,"

"I don't think- I wouldn't exactly say we were 'lost', but we were still a while away from getting back home," Froslass said. "Could you help us out?"

"Yes. The absol colony isn't far from here, we're technically standing right next to it right now, we just need to go up to get to the entrance," the male absol explained. "If you come with us, you can wait out the storm in there and stay the night with us."

"Really?!" Tamin asked, despair converting into hope at an exponential rate.

"Yes," the same absol responded. "We can provide hospitality for the night, you'll want it from this storm."

"How can we be sure we can trust you?" Locke asked.

"I've been in this guild for a while now, so I can confirm that we are on good terms with the absol colony," Froslass answered Locke. "They lack any reason to make this into a rouse."

"Eh, fair enough."

"Please lead the way." Tamin said to Eno in the most respectful manner she could.

"Come," The absol on Eno's otherside said.

The three absol turned around, showing their scythe-like tails to the group as they began walking away the way they came. A few glances were exchanged through the group before they started following the absol. The group was now composed of ten pokemon. The four that originally headed out in the storm, the three guild members that were sent to get them back and now the three absol.

"How do we know you're going the right way?" Tamin inquired to the absol. Seeing that their paw prints were covered up by the snow so they couldn't be traced back.

"We remember which way the wind and snow was coming from when we left," the male absol said, "We can use that to remember which way we should go to get to the colony."

"Won't the wind directions be constantly changing?" Tamin asked a follow-up question.

"Oh, we can sense all those changes and account for them," Eno answered, "We can sense quite a bit and keep track of it. We also go in groups so we can check with each other in case one of us is off."

Eno lifted one of her front legs and pointed it at her horn, showing it off for her explanation while she continued walking using three legs.

"Oh that's super cool!" Scampi excitedly said, "it must be so neat to be an absol and stuff! I mean, you get a new sense and you can predict everything with the weather and- Oh, it's just so cool!"

"Heh, thanks." The female absol on Eno's side said.

"Well If we are going to talk about Pokemon abilities, then I do believe I'm okay with my multiple tails and internal flame," Yuki said. "I don't really feel envious at all about not being an absol."

"Same," Locke followed up in saying. Raising one of his front paws and looking at it while he released some electricity from it.

"You stick to all your species' abilities." Tamin said to herself quietly, "I'll stick to my senses and skills. Makes me more unique."

"And I'm glad that I can- brrr-" Ludicolo tried to speak, but his freezing chlorophyll made him too cold to talk properly.

"The colony is only a few minutes away! Just steel yourselves until then!" The male absol barked.

The group climbed up roads established at the side of a mountain, increasing their altitude as they went forward. The numbing winds became more intense as they got higher, but they hardened themselves for this final stretch. They could feel that beneath the snow was still a pathway and not natural stone or untouched soil. Every minor mark of civilization bequeathed a moral boost to the guild pokemon and gave a vision of a warm indoors to them on this final stretch.

"Can I ask why you are so keen to refer to this as a 'colony'?" Nidorino asked as they climbed the hill, "Is it just the name that you thought sounded the best?"

"Absols usually settle in a new place in the mountains once the previous settlement starts getting too full," Eno explained. "So since we are settling a new area in the mountains: We call it a colony."

"...And why do you like to stay in your own colonies instead of just staying in normal towns?" Nidorino continued to ask.

"Just preferences really," Eno kept answering. "Some of us like to head out (and most towns love to have some absol around, working as weathermen) and we respect those absol. It also gives us a good reason to be spread out all over the world: if someone needs an absol, we won't be far.

Besides, if we weren't in our own colonies: then we wouldn't be in a good position to rescue lost pokemon from storms like we did with you."

"I guess that makes sense." Nidorino said to end the conversation.

"Anyways! We're only like a minute off from the entrance," the other female absol spoke. "Let's just save it all for when we're out of the cold."

A collective nod and agreement happened throughout the group, followed by them continuing to walk and trudge through the snow.

Not too much time later, the path stopped being too sloped and came to a flat section on the hill. To their side was a weathered wooden wall with a door, sticking out like a sore thumb along the hill. Tamin in particular became a little skeptical and disappointed by sight of the wall; her imagination made her picture a dusty cave that used to be a mineshaft behind the door while the others had different reactions.

The three absol approached the door and opened it up. They headed inside with the guild pokemon following them into the hill. Everything opened up around them when they entered, the inside of it was much larger than the guild pokemon had been expecting, it was a full-fledged carved out lounge; with plenty of offshoot paths coming out of it.

The place was mostly cut out to have sharp and smooth walls, with some exceptions here and there. Stone pillars were present and each spaced a few meters apart to keep the roof up and ensure cave ins would not occur.

Several absols were already inside the entrance room, with countless more in other rooms. The ones already in the room all immediately turned their heads to look at the group enter. Each of them had some sort of an accessory distinguishing them in the same vein as Eno's pocket watch. Typically a hairpin, bracelet or something around the neck. Each accessory was unique, allowing them to be told apart from each other even though the culture was monospecies.

As they entered, the wind and snow was left behind them. A blast of cold tried to breach into the architecture, but disappeared into the insulated warmth of the colony and was cut off as the door behind them was shut. It was far better conditions then the alcove with one bonfire provided.

Eno wasted no time in stepping forward, approaching an absol who was decorated with a brooch.

"You found them?" The absol asked.

"Yes. They weren't too far away from the colony at all, so it was an in-and-out mission," Eno responded in the most formal tone she could make.

"Very good,"

"I brought them here so they can stay the night and wait out the storm in our colony," Eno said to him.

"I will ensure that is arranged then," he said, speaking like a leader would.

They talk for a minute longer, with Eno speaking to the brooch absol like he was her superior. Tamin tried eavesdropping on them, but found nothing of interest in the topic. Rather than following the boring conversation, the guild pokemon turned their attention to the other absol there.

"Y'know, I don't think we've gotten your two guys' names," Locke asked the two absol that were beside Eno.

"Oh, my name's 'Saber'," the male absol with the arm bands said. "I just went out because I wanted a chance to stretch my legs outside, the cold doesn't really bother me."

"Name's 'Sesha', and I'm Eno's sister," the female absol with the hairpin said. "Just wanted to go with my sibling, that's all."

"Oh, I didn't realize you were related," Tamin said. "Are you as well, Saber?"

"Just a family friend," he said.

"Siblinghood is a strong bond, how close are you two?" Yuki asked Sesha.

"We still live together, so pretty close," Sesha said. "We've had different ideas on what to do though. I've been in the dating game and she's… okay I'll be honest, I haven't followed everything she's been up to," she awkwardly said.

After the talk, Eno turned to the group and spoke to them.

"Follow me, I'll show you where you can sleep," Eno told them.

"Okay," Multiple members of the group said in unison.

The other absol stayed back while only Eno led them, causing the group size to drop to eight as they went elsewhere in the mountain colony.

"So are you related to that person in any way?" Yuki asked Eno.

"That was just our leader and those two people that accompanied me are just acquaintances," Eno responded. "Odds are that they are my fourth cousins or something, but I'm certainly not closely related."

"Anyone else you're related to?" Froslass asked.

"Just Sesha and my parents."

"Anyone you're in a relationship with?" Yuki asked.

Eno's head tilted as she looked towards the ground. She still walked forward, but it was clear that Yuki struck a more personal chord in Eno.

"I'll probably start dating like my sister is one day, but part of me just feels that's not how I'll find him.

I feel like it will be something more. Hanging out for a while for reasons far from love spending a lot of time together and… it… slowly becoming something more.

That's… just what I feel is going to happen, and I can't quite explain why."

"Hmm. Alright then," Yuki ended the conversation.

Eno went back to having a normal demeanor, and continued guiding the guild pokemon.

As they all traveled through this significantly warmer area, they couldn't help but admire the design of the place. Tamin in particular was amazed by it and it's high detail was much better than the relatively plain look provided by the guildhouse's architecture.

They passed by a dozen absol as they walked, most of them being unused to seeing pokemon other than absol in their home.

"This place is impressive." Locke said aloud, "I'm sure this is a nice place to live in."

"Yeah." Eno replied, "This place is like halfway in-between a single building and an entire town. Hallways can be like streets and bedrooms can be like apartments, you could spend a year in this complex and not exit it."

"This place is like the guildhouse taken to eleven. No no, more like twelve," Scampi commented. "Everyone's living together with their own rooms and stuff."

"I actually am kind of interested in that guild stuff," Eno said, "Could you tell me more about it?"

"Of course" Froslass said, still being unclear on whether she was sarcastic or not. "I think it's what you would immagine-"

"Could you be more specific?" Eno asked, interrupting Froslass.

"Uh- so we just live together in a guildhouse and pick missions of a questboard-"

"And that guildhouse is like this place, correct?"

"Well, it's just one building that we all have one personal room in. The shops and stuff is for the town right outside the place. You've seen it before."

"Ah, I see. So where do the quests come from?"

"I don't exactly know, we just take them from a questboard-"

"Where do the quests come from?" Eno repeated herself.

Froslass began getting confused by Eno's endless supply of questions, but still tried her best to answer.

"We get them from clients going through our guildmaster. They're the ones that pay us-"

"Right, Espeon.

Tell me more about him, I'm curious."

"Wow, you are very intent on getting information," Tamin said to Eno after listening to her talk for a minute.

"I think she is as obsessively investigative as you are obsessively compulsive," Yuki told Tamin.

"Hey," Tamin responded, annoyed by what Yuki said.

"You tease, but that is an apt description of me, I would say, " Eno said, picking up her pocket watch and checking the time while talking, "After all, we all have our aspirations.

Anyways, we're here."

The group came to another room in the colony, this being an empty stone room with basically no furnishing. Not even carpet atop the grey stone.

"This is where you can sleep tonight," Eno explained. "I'll see if I can fetch some blankets for you.

You can explore the colony if you want: but be careful and don't touch too much. It can be hard to tell what is private property and what isn't. Plus there are some absol in here that just might not be comfortable seeing you guys around."

"Alright!" Locke shouted to Eno as she walked off.

The next few hours were spent in the absol colony as the daylight went away. They did go around a bit to tour this society they had, but eventually headed to bed, earlier than they usually did since they were exhausted.

For the entire group: getting sleep after a chaotic day and spending hours in a freezing cold storm was one incredibly good feeling, and after they had gotten past the initial uncomfortableness of the hard stone in foreigh locations, they were all stone cold out and sleeping hard.

After night rolled by, the storm finally ended and the sun rose again. That new day, the winds were finally calm again.

Yuki was the first to wake up from sleeping, leaving her in the room with everyone else still sleeping.

She looked around in curiosity, trying to spot everyone in the room. There were no absol that entered the room while they were sleeping, with Froslass, Scampi, Nidorino and Ludicolo all being easy to find. Locke and Tamin, however, were not easily spotted.

Looking around some more, Yuki saw a lump on the ground that was covered up by blankets and across the room from her.

Going to investigate, she walked over to the lump, grabbed the edge of the blankets and lifted it up.

Underneath, she found Locke and Tamin sleeping, both of them hugging each other as they slept with their arms and paws going over the others neck and the rest of their bodies being close together. Tamin also had her tail going over Locke, slightly wrapping around him. Both of them pressed themselves against each other before they went to sleep.

The two slowly woke up and opened their eyes because of the blanket over them being lifted, seeing a vulpix standing over them as they returned to consciousness.

"Well, looks like we got some cute, little love bugs going on right here," Yuki said to them while smiling.

Locke and Tamin immediately woke up as Yuki spoke while they pushed each other away and awkwardly got into a sitting position. Both of them had their cheeks slightly red from being noticed by Yuki and needed a moment to think about what to say.

"Uhh..." Locke spurted out.

"Wanting to become something more with him? Isn't it still a little early in life to be doing that, sweetie?"

"Oh you little brat!" Tamin said as she got up and curled her hand into a fist, going close to Yuki.

Before any collision could happen, Nidorino put his arm between them to separate them. He had been woken up from their talking and sought to prevent a fight from happening. When Yuki had the arm come in front of her, she retained her sly grin while looking straight at Tamin.

The smile alone was enough to make Tamin remember about the deal she was forced to make with Yuki in the obscure closet two days ago, and she remembered that she couldn't do anything that would anger Yuki without getting her secrets blown. Thus she stepped back.

"Good girl," Yuki said quietly in a demeaning manner, taking advantage of Tamin's good hearing to make sure only she could hear it.

After that bit of chaos: Tamin, Locke and Yuki looked around them. Seeing that the others were begrudgingly waking up, having been disturbed by what was going on."

"Wh-what's going on?" Scampi asked in a half tired voice.

"Uhh, nothing," Locke said, not quite able to make a proper bluff.

"Some tension, but nothing broke out," Nidorino said.

Tamin gave a sigh before she spoke as well.

"Let's... let's just start heading back to the guildhouse soon."

A large moan was heard throughout the room, nobody wanting to get up.

"You know Yuki, you're not only making yourself out to be terrible, but vulpix in general." Locke said while the others started getting up, "Intentional or not, every bad thing you do is just going to make me (and I'm sure plenty of others) just a little bit prejudicial. And you're just going to make me end up disliking (or even hating) vulpix and ninetails as a whole. We're just going to think of you when we see them."

"Huh," Yuki spent a moment thinking about what Locke just said, "That is easily the smartest thing I have heard come out of a wild's mouth.

Too bad it's not the norm. Afterall: if that was the norm, then you would have a civilised Pokemon and not a wild one. Like me."

Locke squinted at Yuki in disdain for a moment as his first response.

"Yeah. I definitely think I hate all vulpixes and ninetails because of you," his second response was in a verbal form "If they're spawning brats like you: then screw you all. And screw all the kids I am sure you're messing up as well."

As that entire conversation went down and afterwards: the rest of the group were slowing getting up from their sleeping positions. The process of getting out of the absol colony took an hour. Everyone had to get up, grab their stuff, get dressed in their coats and blankets again, as well as motivate themselves enough to go back out into the cold once more.

As they headed out, they got to see Eno in the entry room. He looked at them and prompted a final conversation with them before they left.

"Oh, are you leaving?" Eno asked.

"Yeah. We're getting back to the guild." Nidorino answered.

"Okay, goodbye then! Don't know when we will meet again, might be a while."

"Goodbye!" Scampi cheerfully said, "This place was nice!"

"Wait, one quick question," Locke said.

"What is it?" Eno asked.

"Is there anything we need to know about the upcoming weather?"

"There's not going to be much snowfall for two weeks," Eno said while smiling and tilting her head slightly, "Although don't expect any of the snow that's already there to go away. It will be pretty brisk."

"Thank you!" Tamin said, "Anyways, let's head out."

Leaving the absol colony was much like leaving the alcove the previous day. Having the world be covered in snow was still something they weren't used to. But it was nice to see it no longer falling from the sky as well as the air being still. The temperature was still not preferable, but it was significantly more tolerable than what it was yesterday.

The snow was deeper than what it was when they entered the colony. It slowed their movement further, but it was at least reassuring to the group that it would not get deeper that day.

Without the wind to disorientate them, it was only a little over an hour before they could see the town and guildhouse again.

If there was one time that the guildhouse truly felt like home to Locke and Tamin, it was then. With it only being another twenty minutes for them to get up to the guildhouse.

Getting closer to the guildhouse, the group found it near-buried in snow. The storm has been more intense in that area, and snow being blown around naturally gathers itself against flat walls.

It was not the same building as they had left it. The roof was coated in snow, the balcony was completely buried making it unusable, the treehouse lost branches, and all the entrances were blocked by snow that gathered against the walls of buildings.

For a moment, the group was worried about not being able to make it in. But those worries were destroyed as they saw a rumble in the snow, followed by excadrill triumphantly jumping out of the snow he dug through.

Excadrill gave the group a shy wave before he continued to dig out the rest of the snow blocking the entrance.

After so long: The journey in the storm was over. The seven pokemon marched back into the guildhouse, back into home.

**End of chapter 16.**


	17. Snowed In

"Nine, eight, seven, six, five," Scampi neared the end of counting down for five minutes, sitting in the corner of the lounge with her eyes closed and had her head towards the walls. "four, three, two, one.

Ready or not, here I come!"

After shouting those final six words as loud as her lungs would allow, she turned around and began searching the empty lounge, checking behind every piece of furniture she could find. "Come out, come out, wherever you are~" Scampi sang while searching, she couldn't help but wave her tail while searching as well.

After a minute of scouring the lobby and not finding a single soul, she turned to go down one of the basement hallways and began searching elsewhere in the basement for guildmembers who were hiding. The rockruff was forced to search with just her eyes and ears, as at the time she was under the effect of rhimti seeds, inducing some symptoms similar to what one with a cold would have, and made her unable to smell. The seeds were typically reserved for guildmembers that were going into areas with gag inducing scents, but she was under the effects as there was no way the competition could be fair without it. Nevertheless, Scampi was ecstatic while playing hide-and-seek. Being the seeker versus two dozen hiders in the massive and winding basement of the guildhouse was a dream come true for her. Many days she had wanted to do it, but couldn't properly set it up until that day.

It was the third day of being snowed inside of the guild at that point. Three days of the entire guild being together, and three days of them not having much else to do besides granting a rockruff her dream and having a fun event together.

Nidorino was the first one Scampi found, it wasn't difficult for her to spot him under a canvas cloth on the edge of a semi-packed room. He knew he could only hide his rather large body so much, so he had expected he would be noticed early, just not that early. Scampi had her morale boosted from her first find, and Nidorino walked over to the lounge to wait for the event to cease.

It took over an hour in all. Scampi was gleeful about every last one she found. The larger pokemon or the ones that simply didn't care like Max and Armin were found early on, whilst pokemon like Mienfoo and Ludicolo were found partway through.

Dewott was also spotted part way in as he left his hiding spot to run towards the bathroom. Getting spotted didn't mean much anyways as him moving around automatically disqualified him, but his running made him easily noticed. He made it to the bathroom on an uncomfortably close call.

Olivia also got disqualified as well as she seemingly lost the plot on what her role was and got spotted wandering through the halls to look for where Locke was hiding, but didn't go without revealing Locke's hiding spot prematurely to Scampi before she was sent back. Many didn't think they would be found as quickly as they did, as they thought the hiding places they chose were quite good. But they had underestimated the force of someone with a child's imagination and creativity who also had much practice in this particular game.

Over the course of the event, Tamin waited by herself alone in a secluded room. She found unfinished walls where she managed to hide behind some wooden boards. It was a tight fit to get into that area and even tighter to avoid splinters, but her body and soft fur was able to squeeze into it. Not even she fully knew where she was, as she had just ran down random rooms and halls in the basement until she found one that had those boards she could hide behind. Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes counted up to being over an hour. Unable to leave without forfeiting her position in the game and making Scampi unhappy, all she could do was wait and think. Of course, she had few nice things to think about from the shadows of her past. Her mind was a smaller confine to be trapped in then the narrow space between the rickety wood board and hard earth. At times she'd even forget she was playing hide-and-seek with a friend, thinking it was another one of the times she would hide from her parents and hope for them to calm down.

But as she waited for what felt like four hours to her in dark lonesomeness, a friendly voice finally called out to her.

"There you are, Tamin!" Scampi declared.

The minccino turned, and saw the rockruff peering at her from the small opening she had climbed into the space from. Scampi's eyes were more eager and innocent then Tamin had ever seen from her before, they stood in complete contrast to how she had felt but a moment ago and acted like floodlights dispelling the darkness that her mind was being clouded with.

"Oh, well it appears I have," Tamin said. She began climbing out after speaking.

"You're a really good hider, Tamin!" Scampi said whilst taking a step back to give Tamin room to get out.

"Thanks," Tamin said with a smile. Being complimented still hadn't been something she felt she could expect on a consistent basis at that point, so it did feel exceedingly nice to hear.

"You hid longer than anyone else!" Scampi proclaimed.

"I-I did?" Tamin asked in confusion.

"Yeah!" she affirmed. "It took me like ten minutes or like something like that to find you after the last one! You won hide-and-seek!"

"Well that's… pleasantly surprising, I suppose," Tamin said, feeling mixed as she was glad to win but also wanted to have a layer of ambiguity and to blend in with the guild, an objective that didn't mesh well with being the best in the guild at something.

"It's very pleasant!" Scampi said. "C'mon now, let's head back!"

"You lead, I'll follow," Tamin said.

The rockruff ran out of the obscure room, and Tamin got on all-fours to run after. Though the minccino had no idea where she was in the basement, Scampi could easily navigate through all of it and guide Tamin through it all. Soon enough, they were back in the lounge where many of the guild members were waiting. It was everyone that Scampi had found from Armin the lucario to Yuki the vulpix, but also had Espeon present there.

"Ah, Tamin! That makes for everyone now," Espeon said as the two entered the room. "With all heads counted for now, that makes Tamin the minccino the winner by virtue of being the one who remained hidden the longest. Congratulations!"

The room hollered and cheered for Tamin, but that only served to make her feel more awkward and blushy. Having the spotlight on her in specific wasn't her intention, she wanted nothing more than to have a simple game with Scampi and remain ambiguous. Yet it was her very skill to be well hidden that led to her standing out in the guild.

"Thanks everyone," she said nervously.

"Have you played hide and seek before? You seem like you know what you're doing," Scampi asked.

"You could say that, yeah," Tamin said, somewhat dodging the question so she wouldn't have to say the truth behind how her skills developed.

"The next game will be in two hours, do you want to be the next seeker for that? You have first dibs," Espeon told Tamin.

"I think I'll pass on that, but thanks," she replied.

"That's fine then, I'll ask around to see who wants to do it then," Espeon assured. He then turned his head towards Scampi. "This was a really great idea, I think everyone liked it. Perfect for when everyone is cooped up like this."

"Thank you!" she replied.

"Already everyone, that's it. Take some time to stretch your legs, the next game's in one hundred and twenty minutes."

Some more chatter and light cheering happened, but for the most part they nodded in agreement to what he said. Most of the group dispersed and went up the stairs in an orderly fashion, Tamin being among them. The minccino journeyed back to her room where she went inside and closed the door. She then leaned against the back of the door, closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and took a few deep breaths to relieve the built up stress of social interaction.

After a few seconds of rhythmic breathing, Tamin felt ready to face the world again. Once more she turned around and opened the chamber door, to exit into the guildhouse. _"Two hours, that's how much time I've got while everyone is still together,"_ Tamin thought to herself. But even with knowledge on how much time she had to spend, that did nothing to tell her what she could do in that time period. Espeon had ordered that only the most dire and important missions should be undertaken, and those were reserved for the strong guildmembers who could handle them. Most of the town was closed down from the snow as well, so that wasn't much of an option either. She was trapped at that time by the banks of snow in all directions, not much better off then Locke was.

As she walked around the halls for what felt like the twentieth time just that day, she heard some chatter emitting from other rooms. It was just simple talk about the hide-and-seek game that had just finished and who should be the next seeker or seekers, not topics that were interesting to Tamin specifically. But it did serve to remind her that she was able to eavesdrop to pass the time. In absence of other things to do, Tamin perked her ears up to begin listening on conversations again.

First few she heard didn't tell very interesting tales, many were just talking about how they were worried about their families and how they fared in the storm. The only interesting thing she noticed in the first thirty minutes was that Espeon and Sebastien were giving each other the cold shoulder and not having anything close to the lovey dovey talk Tamin heard from them prior.

But during one patrol on the guild's upper floor, where Tamin walked near the chamber doors to listen for voices therein, she heard a voice that seemed out of place.

"It's been a few days now, do you have any additional notes on Locke?" It was Sylveon's voice. "Or Tamin as well, since you have said you're making a profile on her too."

Tamin had come to know the layout of the guildhouse well enough to know that Sylveon's bedroom wasn't on the second floor, so she stopped in her place and continued to listen in on the room. She assumed a pose of casually leaning against the wall with her paws behind her head, making it appear like she was just resting and not like she was eavesdropping.

"Ah yes. Although the lack of missions slows progress down greatly, the harness on him should still be of great help," Mawile replied. "It's purpose is two-fold, it both allows him to be better controlled, and it will serve as removal therapy as he will want to correct his behavior to have it be taken off and to avoid the humiliation it brings. From his perspective, he likely views it as an unnecessary tortue method that he wants to get out of as fast as possible."

Hearing Mawile's works served to both spark Tamin's interest further and caused emotions of anger to come to her. Even still, she held her same casual position to make her come across as unassuming.

"I am aware, but how is that going for him so far?" Sylveon inquired.

"From what I have picked up on it seems to have been successful in keeping him from wandering off on the miasma cave mission and the mountain rescue mission of days before, so thus far it has had a one hundred percent success rate. But that success rate arises from a sample size so miniscule that the correct course of action as per the scientific method would be to ignore it until we can gain some more examples and a larger sample size. But things are looking good so far, I'd say. He doesn't appear to have any indications of being traumatized."

"So have I asked too early?" Sylveon asked.

"Perhaps not. Seeing his immediate reactions to things has been quite fascinating to witness first hand. I'm almost disappointed I'm not allowed to stalk him to see all of it, it's given me far more meterial for that profile I am building then the first week he was here provided," Mawile explained.

"Can I hear what your current theories are then?"

"Of all the things I have seen and heard occur, ultimately the fact that has got me hooked up the most is that according to Sebastien, he is able to recall events that happen in these ferocity ticks. I initially theorized he had some kind of multiple personality disorder with a highly aggressive personality behind him, but individuals with that typically do not remember what happened during periods where their other personality has taken hold. So while it cannot be dismissed completely, if Sebastien's story is true then that gives strong evidence that he doesn't have that disorder.

However, considering his age and life conditions, I think he has potential to develop that disorder if we do not treat him correctly. Standard conditioning is to be employed, but anything that is potentially traumatizing should be kept as only a last resort. Consider him as being one horrendous day away from us having a pokemon with a mental condition to manage.

In regards to what he is in the present: I have read into instinct and what it is. I believe it's not some other person and mind in us that sometimes takes control (even though that's often what it is depicted as). It is just a part of us. It's not some other thought process we possess, it is a part of our thought process, it's just us.

It's like an insanity in and of the fact that when it takes control, it is completely normal from your perspective. Even when looking back on it, it doesn't seem like much was different about you then. When how you view the world changes, you cannot feel those changes.

If that makes any sense. Apologies if I can't really think of any good analogies for this."

"If it's anything like your theory says it is then it sounds quite… horrifying, really," Sylveon expressed while contemplating the implications of what she said.

"It is what it is, even if that's not a very good thing. Either way, the lesson I believe you should take away is that you shouldn't view him in his ferocious state and him in his typical demeanor as they aren't two different people. But at the same time, make sure nothing truly traumatizing happens to him."

"I will handle him like one handles a glass cup that is about to fall down from a shelf," Sylveon told her.

"Excellent plan, I hope your execution will be equally refined," Mawile stated.

"Worry not,"

Tamin could tell that the conversation between them was wrapping up. Not just from their words, but from the shifting tones in their voices were a subtle indication of how things were changing that the subconscious could pick up on. She left the position she was in to begin walking down the walkway again, for a moment she looked back at the door, but then turned away to avoid looking suspicious. That way, they wouldn't know any better, even if they immediately left the room. But as she continued walking away and didn't notice any sounds of a door opening, a thought went across her head.

"Wait a second, didn't Sylveon ask about what Mawile knew about me as well? They're probably talking about that right now," she pondered. "Should I go back to hear that? No, that would be easy to risky. Drat, I really regret moving away now."

Tamin went down onto the main floor of the guildhouse and began walking around again, doing another patrol around in hopes that would pass the time. Little did she know that that was still only the start of a long winter indoors.

She had to pace around for another twenty-six minutes before anything of note happened once more; the time counted closer to the next hide-and-seek event happening. This time she passed by the door to Mienfoo's room, where she heard a conversion transpire from within. As before, she leaned against the wall in a casual position to hear in.

"So whatd'ya want to talk to me about?" She heard Dewott ask.

"Well, now that it's winter and there's hardly any missions going on, there's something of importance that I wanted to discuss with you," she heard Mienfoo reply with.

"What is it?" Dewott asked.

Mienfoo took a moment to inhale a strong breath, and then give a deep exhale to set herself to the right mood.

"Since there's not much for me over here, I'm thinking about going back to my family for the winter," Mienfoo explained.

"Wait, really?" Dewott said, not raising his voice too much, but still sounding concerned.

"Yeah," Mienfoo said. "I know what my family's like, so I think it would be best."

"So would you rather be them with me?" Dewott asked.

"Oh, no. That's not the case," Mienfoo quickly said. "It's just that I know the kind of people they're like, and they'd be worried about me."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to sound jealous," Dewott apologized, realizing how he came off. "It- it's just I would rather be with you."

"Tell you what, you can come with me and I'll get a guest room arranged for you to stay in." Mienfoo explained. "Yeah, we have a whole wing for some small guest chambers, and most of them aren't occupied. I can pay for you if necessary."

"Well, I'd certainly love if I could stay in a castle like that with you, but you heard about what happened during that hide-and-seek game, it's not going to work out." Dewott said, "If I'm staying at some different place where I don't know where all the bathrooms are or the best ways to get to them, that's not going to end in a close call like it did today. And then I'm just going to embarrass you as well since they know I'm your boyfriend."

"Oh, I see your point," Mienfoo said, her head lowering down.

"Yeah… I think I'm just going to have to stay here no mat'r what. So if you leave, you're on you're own," Dewott said, sharing emotions and mannerisms.

"I hope you won't be too lonely out here if I go then," Mienfoo stated.

"I think'll be fine, I have Locke to keep me company."

"That's good… I guess I will stay. But if they send a letter over here summoning me, then I do _have_ to go. That's just part of being a scion from a house,"

"Yeah, yeah, I understand that. They're important. And the guildhouse isn't the nicest of places to be at right now. A noble castle would be better to stay at," Dewott said, still thinking things over with his paw on his chin.

"Mhm. Honestly, they're probably more necessary than the guild is. But I still want my recess from politics from time to time," Mienfoo said, beginning to lean back where she was. "The guildhouse was built on a tri-point between three different counties as a way to make it more politically neutral and not within the influence of one singular house. Which does help when we don't have anyone from the houses coming over to try to give the guild orders, since they don't have full domain of it."

"Yeah. Heh, except Niot. He has a lot of confusing stuff to deal with."

"Oh yes. I honestly don't know how he just manages taxes without pulling his feathers out, much less everything else this causes with legal conflictions. I'll be perfectly honest and tell you that my family has tried to do a few illegal actions with the guild that Niot called out."

"Haha, yeah," Dewott said, his tone indicating he was now longer thinking to himself and back to full awareness around him. "Look, I don't want to demand you stay here, I really don't. I just… want to make sure you've thought this out."

"I understand."

"I guess… I guess my main concern is that I'm not going to be able to see you evolve."

"Oooh, I hadn't realized that. That is a good point."

"Mhm… You're getting really close to the age where it's 'spose to happen, and I was looking forward to that."

"Hmm… I'll tell you what, I don't need to make this decision today. It would take me sometime to move out anyways," Mienfoo reassured. "Until then, I'm still here, Anything you want to do with me?"

"...Well, we haven't done a snowball fight or anything else in the snow this season yet," Dewott said after a moment of thinking.

"Great idea! I'd be happy to do that with you. Anything else?"

They discussed different activities they could do for a little while longer, with the minccino continuing to eavesdrop. She realized that not much more was going on, she got off of the wall and wandered off, still thinking of the conversation in her mind.

_"It must be nice to know you have another warm, safe place to go to and not just the guildhouse. I'd certainly like to have somewhere else to be,"_ Tamin thought as she walked off. "Although if Mienfoo is going to be gone soon, should I try to get in another training session with her like I did with her a few days ago? Hmm… nah, we don't have much area to train in anyways and I don't think I really need it."

While Tamin continued walking around to listen for gossip, Crystal the weavile was on her own way across the guildhouse. She counted the rooms she passed by, until he stopped in front of the door to Locke's chamber. She approached the door and lifted her claw to knock on it a few times,waiting for an answer. It was at a time they had planned out in advance, so she was confident there would be a response.

"Locke? You in there?" Crystal asked while knocking.

"One minute!" Locke responded through the door, "I'm trying to make myself look a little nicer!"

"Oh, then I can't wait to see how you look she you are done!" Crystal responded.

Locke looked at himself in a mirror he had while he tried to make himself look the best he could. He did this using a small makeup that he borrowed from someone else yesterday.

From spending most of his life in the wild and had only been seriously been engaging with society after joining the guild less than two weeks ago. Because of this: he didn't exactly know what was considered to be good looking and what wasn't in society's etiquette. So he just did his best to copy what he saw most his friends doing. He also remembered what Elley looked like when he saw her in town, so he naturally used her as a template to what a proper shinx should look like.

Although the limited dexterity provided by his paws certainly made things more difficult, Locke still had the determination to get it all done.

Once he was done, Locke closed up the supplies he was using, headed over to his room's door and opened it up to greet Crystal on the other side.

"Alright, I'm done!" Locke said to Crystal.

"Alright, Let's go-" Crystal spoke. She was not interrupted, but instead paused her own speech when he looked at Locke's current looks.

"So, I spent the last hour and a half working on myself." Locke said while optimistically smiling, closing his eyes and tilting his head to the side, "How do I look"?

"Uhh…" Crystal trailed on while she kept looking.

Locke had all of his fur combed through and brushed up. It also had some artificial highlights in it (which Locke assumed would automatically make him look better by virtue of having it alone). Some products were also applied to his fur and to make his tail tip cleaner and shiny. But by far the most notable thing was that Locke's eyelashes were now greatly extended and given a black highlight to make them more noticable.

"...What's up with the eyelashes?" Was the first thing Crystal asked after studying Locke for a few seconds.

"What? Isn't it just something you do to make yourself look nicer?" Locke asked confused, "You have those strong eyelashes, and I also saw a shinx in town that looked like this. Then there's Tamin, Yuki-"

"It's really only something girls do." Crystal explained, "I hate to say it, but you kinda look very feminine right now."

Locke stopped for a moment to think what he just did, thinking about all the pokemon he has seen with long eyelashes and the fact he was basing his looks after a female shinx he saw in town.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry, I did not know about that." Locke spoke, "It's almost all my friends have long eyelashes, so I it was just a thing everyone did and that-"

"Wow, you really do not know much about what looks good and what you should do to yourself."

"Yeah..." Locke lowered his head in shame (while still facing forward). What he thought would be a moment to show off his new looks to impress his girlfriend quickly turned into a deeply embarrassing moment. There was nothing he would have liked more than for Crystal to just laugh it all off at that time.

"Uh, can I ask how many male friends you have?" Crystal inquired, taking note of how Locke claimed that most of his friends had long eyelashes.

"There's Dewott and… Huh, I guess that's it." Locke answered.

"Okay. Yeah. Th-this is a thing." Crystal said.

"Wait, this doesn't make sense. Tamin specifically said that this was what I should've done to look prettier when she let me borrow her makeup kit yester-..."

Locke raised his head back up as he had a moment of revelation, interrupting himself while the pieces clicked together in his head.

"Oh my gosh I think that was Hunter," He realized.

"Wow. You really messed up here," Crystal said bluntly.

Locke applied his paw to his forehead as he continued talking:

"And he probably handed me what was Yuki's stuff right then and there."

The two both gave a deep sigh, getting rid of the stress within themselves and accepting what was currently going on instead of making it any more chaotic than it already was. Locke also lowered his paw from his head, which once again revealed the extended and highlighted eyelashes he now possesed.

"Alright… so I look like a girl now." Locke said, reminding himself more than telling Crystal.

"Yeah. I'm glad you picked a day where we are staying in the guildhouse, because I don't want anyone actually thinking you are female and getting the wrong ideas about me." Crystal said, focusing more on how this affected her instead of Locke.

Locke raised his paw up to his eyes and felt the eyelashes for a little bit, still ashamed of himself.

"By any chance, do you know of a way to get these off?"

"I would being any chronicles that close to your eye to get them off." Crystal responded, "Just be rinsing them under water a few times a day. They'll loosen off eventually."

"Alright. So… What do you want to do?" Locke asked.

"I don't know. Want to just come to my room and hang out there until we think of something better to do?"

"Sure." Locke said while he finally stepped out of the door frame to his room, closing the door just afterwards.

"Follow," Crystal gave as a one-word command.

"Yes," Locke replied, unquestioning.

Crystal started going towards the nearest stairway room to get upstairs and to her room, with Locke following close behind her.

While traveling, Crystal examined her Weavile claws. She looked at the top of them before flipping her hands over to look at the bottom to check the sharpness of them.

Finding them to be in unsatisfactory quality, she began sharpening her claws against each other to make them better and refining them as she walked forward.

They went up the stairs, turned west, going along the indoor balcony fence and getting up to one of the rooms. Crystal led Locke to her room and opened the door up to get him in.

Even though Locke had been in Crystal's room before, entering it was still a moment of awe that hadn't yet lost its charm. The whole room was a studio of fine design.

Her bed and miscellaneous belongings were relegated to the corner of it while the artwork dominated the room.

"I see your calligraphy is going good like always," Locke said.

"Thanks," Crystal responded, "It's nice to have something to do when you're stuck inside."

"Honestly, I'm just happy that I can spend a winter being warm." Locke said, "Although I can see how having a nice hobby is certainly a bonus."

"Yeah."

Crystal grabbed one of the brushes that she had in the room while searching for some ink to put on it afterwards.

"So are you the only artist in the guild?" Locke asked while he seated himself in Crystal's room.

"Armin is also an artist," Crystal explained, "He does pencil drawings. Although I'm not sure he's made any new pieces as of late. I'm really not sure what's going around with that lucario in general."

"'Kay," Locke said, already getting a satisfactory answer.

"He's really quite odd," Crystal continued. "I can't quite put my finger on it, but he just doesn't act like any pokemon I have seen or how I would imagine them acting. I have even seen other lucarios before, and he's just...different."

After that conversation, Crystal found the supplies she needed to start working. She started drawing some art with Locke there to watch her.

"Hey, is it okay if you give me a try at this?" Locke asked.

"Umm… I'll say no. I don't think that's a great idea," Crystal responded.

"Aww, why not? You showed me how to write my name awhile ago, why can't you show me how to do some calligraphy?"

"I said no, Locke," Crystal said, suddenly getting much colder in tone.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, It's alright," Locke said, taking himself back.

"You can't even stand on two legs, I don't want you ruining my stuff by knocking ink over or something. If you do, I will cut you," Crystal told Locke.

"I- I understand," Locke responded, intimidated but not surprised by what Crystal said.

For the next half-hour, Crystal made art with Locke silently watching. It was far from the first time they had done something like this, but it was still fun for them. Crystal got to do her hobby and Locke got to spend some time with his only real childhood friend and now girlfriend.

During the same time period where Locke was in Crystal's room, Tamin was still on her own while going around the guildhouse.

She'd finished pacing around the upper floor and main floor multiple times over, so the only place left for her was below in the guild's basement. She still didn't like the place; the designs were still frustratingly uneven and the acoustics were terrible, and those weren't things that would suddenly change when the snow fell in. But she was getting more tolerant in those things, and also knew that avoiding the basement in the months she would spend trapped inside that building was an unrealistic feat.

This time around she made sure to not journey too far away from the lounge and to keep track of the route she used. She still wasn't very well versed in pathfinding, so she had to be careful to ensure her wandering didn't lead to her becoming lost.

Since it was still a little while until the next game commenced, the basement was mostly void of life, just as it was mostly void of proper decorations. But Tamin had an idea on where there could be life in it. The minccino recalled where she originally heard Hunter talking to Yuki in, the one where she heard them tell of their plans to provoke Locke. It would have been risky to head there and there was a chance that they left the room behind due to believing its privacy was compromised, those were all facts that Tamin was aware of and considered. But at the same time, were there any guild members that would be more interesting to listen in on then them?

Retracing the path she took on that day invoked bad memories; she remembered her failure in warning Locke and how his humiliation might've been preventable had she been less passive. Nevertheless, she pushed on and managed to find her way to the hallway containing the exact room of her search.

As light on her paws as she could, she silently moved across the hall to the old door. Once there, she readied her ears to check for any noise. To her surprise, she heard speaking come from within.

"So, how's your plans for those rockets going?" Yuki was heard asking.

"Oh, there's doing alright. I'm still working out some specifics, but I think I figured out how to make those," Hunter was heard replying.

"Lov-al-ly. Although are you still sure that alcohol-based bottle rockets are a good idea?"

"Look, that's not the point. There's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh?" Yuki said, her voice raising in tone like a child's voice.

"You've told me a bit about what's been going on between you and her, plus I've been able to pick up on somethings here and there myself," Hunter said. There was no cheeriness in his voice. This was the most serious she had heard him. "So I just wanted to say that… I'd like it if you stayed away from Tamin."

"Wait, what?" the vulpix responded.

Although Tamin knew she probably should have gotten out of there, a large part of her was still curious. Even if the last time she tried to eavesdrop on them ended very poorly.

They were outside of the lounge in the basement, so Tamin could hide behind a corner with it not being guaranteed that any other guild members would notice her or Yuki.

"I just don't want you tormenting her like you did with Braixen," Tamin heard Hunter say.

_"Hunter? What's he doing here? Are they talking about me?"_ Tamin thought to herself as she kept on listening.

"Why not? Why are you protective of her all of a sudden?" Yuki asked.

"I don't know," Hunter admitted, "Something about her… I like. I don't want to see her go through your stuff."

At the point Tamin knew they were indeed talking about her. She kept listening in to find out more.

She could tell that they hadn't noticed her presence yet. Tamin wondered if the dust bath she took a little bit earlier blocked out her scent enough to prevent them from sniffing her out, but she didn't have the time to theorize and needed to focus on what they were saying.

"Are you sure that spending two days locked up in that one room didn't screw up your head a bit?" Yuki asked Hunter.

"I don't know, possibly." Hunter responded, "But something about her I like. I have some emotions for her. I just… I think she's cute."

Tamin could hear Yuki give a sigh after hearing what Hunter said.

"Look, I don't want to give her up. It's been a while until i've had a proper pokemon to 'play' with. As much as I want you to be happy, I don't want this to go to waste."

"Then I'll be the one to 'play' with you." Hunter proposed, "I'll take her place in this. You get what you want on getting a replacement for Braixen, and I get what I want on her being okay.

It's mutually beneficial as we both get what we want. Please."

"Hmm..." Yuki spent a moment thinking about the deal Hunter proposed, "I'll accept that for now, but you wil-ling-ly doing this and knowing me really does defeat the purpose."

"Alright. Thank you," Hunter said solemnly.

"Hey, I already have stuff that will fit on you in my room (which I haven't quite gotten for Tamin yet). So why not start right now?"

"Umm. O-okay." Hunter responded, seeing the true extent of his decision.

"Come then," Yuki said while beginning to walk off.

"...Alright."

_"I need to get out of here,"_ Tamin thought to herself.

Using her soft paws to avoid making noise, Tamin ran off on all fours in the opposite direction of them, trying to avoid getting noticed by them as they too walked off.

"So out of all the people in the guild, Hunter is the one standing out for me?" Tamin wondered to herself, trying to process the current situation going down. It did seem like quite the far cry from what she previously knew Hunter for.

Off and away, Tamin retraced her steps to get back to the lounge, and through there get back to the main floor of the guildhouse.

Meanwhile, Locke was still with Crystal in her room. She observed her brush strokes and would occasionally make comments, but for the most part he just stayed quiet. After almost half an hour of this, Crystal finished a piece and turned to talk to him directly.

"So, are you liking what I have so far?" she asked, starting off innocently.

"As nice as it's always been," Locke replied.

"Good, that's very good," Crystal said as she began packing up her drawing supplies.

"Are you done?"

"Yeah," Crystal said once she got done setting down the supplies, and then picked up a metal nail file. She began sharpening her claws.

"Oh, okay then… anything else you want us to do today?" Locke asked.

"In a sense," Crystal replied, her tone getting colder as she kept sharpening her claws.

"Uh, what is it?" Locke said, starting to shift a bit uncomfortable where he was laying down.

"There's something we need to talk about," Crystal said as she finished refining the sharpness on her claws.

The weavile stood up from where she was and walked over to Locke, getting there before he was able to get up and move his location. She positioned herself to be sitting right next to him with an arm over him, looming over.

"It's why I wanted you here, I just wanted to make sure you were comfortable first."

"Uh, o-okay, what is this about?" Locke said as he tried to lean away from Crystal.

In a swift motion, Crystal put one of her recently sharpened claws right up to Locke's neck, slightly pressing against his fur.

"I heard from Yuki that while you were in that absol colony, you were hugging Tamin closely and sleeping with her. Is that true?" she asked in a tone of condemnation.

"Well, um-" Locke stuttered out.

"Is that true, Locke? Were you doing that with her?" she asked again, this time even colder.

"I…"

Not waiting any longer for a response, Crystal pressed one of her claws down into Locke skin and slowly dragged it. She made sure the process was slow so it would be as excruciating as possible, with blood leaking out of the wound being steadily opened up and the flesh becoming frostbitten. The shinx gritted his teeth and cringed at the pain.

"I hope that gives you a message, I never want you to be trying to cheat on me again with Tamin," Crystal said.

"I-I wasn't cheating with her, we were just wanting to stay warm and-"

Crystal put her claw back to his flesh and made another similar wound at a different place in his neck. Once again, the pain rushed, the blood flowed, and the frostbite spreaded.

"What, do you take me for some idiot? Is that what I am to you? I know full well what you were intending with her. And if you ever do anything like that again, expect to get much worse cuts," Crystal said to him while finally pulling away, Locke's blood slowly sliding down her claw. "Do you understand?"

"Y-yes, I understand," Locke said while trying to put pressure to his wound to make it feel better.

"You're really an awful boyfriend, you know that right? I used my own money I earned to buy a desk you wanted, and this is how you treat me? By being with another girl who has given you nothing?" Crystal berated. "You're disgusting."

"I'm sorry!" Locke pleaded, a fear present in his voice that wasn't usual for him. "I'll be better."

"You'd certainly better be!" Crystal shouted back at him. "I hope you do your best to avoid that minccino after this. She's done nothing for you, whereas I've been kind enough to buy that desk for you."

"Got it," Locke whimpered.

Crystal looked down on Locke again, by multiple senses of the term. She noticed that his red blood was bleeding onto his purple scarf, and leaving behind a rather unsavory stain in the garment that would be noticeable by others. She let out a tired sigh, knowing she'd have to deal with that so others would not know of what transpired.

She dug around her cabinets for what she could use, and found a bottle of stain remover she had purchased weeks earlier. The bottle was half used already and meant for oils, paints, and ink, but she figured it would have to do the job with blood stains as well. She did recall times where she used it to clean up some absinthe she had accidentally spilled, so she had some level of confidence towards its versatility in cleansing.

Crystal walked back over to Locke, holding just the stain remover without any medical supplies to be found. She pull her hand down on him to keep him from moving again, and then focused on the scarf around her neck. She began applying caps full of the substance to the cloth, fur and harness to purge it of the red stains. A few drops of it haphazardly fell into his frostbitten wounds which aggravated the pain greatly with an unholy sting. Only after he blood was cleaned did she bother retrieving anything to tend to the shinx's body directly, but even then, she only got a few odd bandages that she haphazardly applied to his skin. It was a far cry from the delicacy he had put to his clothing and nothing to alleviate the frostbite or the sting from the stain remover that seeped into his open wound. Before even being done to any stretch of imagination, she stepped back.

"Leave me now," Crystal commanded. "Leave the room. I hope you'll be better when I next see you."

"Okay…" he muttered.

Locke picked himself up, receiving no help from Crystal as he walked out with his tail between his legs. He opened the room door and walked out of it again, out into the guildhouse that saw him as a feral beast and he would have to spend the coming months in to avoid freezing to death.

As he left, he had to remind myself about what he loved about the weavile. _"She has done lots of other good things to me as well, I can't forget about those,"_ he thought to himself. "She won't be hurting me forever, I just need to bare through it. She's still the same pokemon I remembered, after all. And I guess I did do wrong.

Oh well. If I can't handle having a cold wound, I certainly can't handle having a cold heart either."

By happenchance, Tamin was walking up the stairs to the upper floor of the guildhouse at the same time as Locke was walking away from Crystal's chamber door. After getting the information she wanted from Hunter and Yuki, she was putting as much distance as she could between herself and them. She rounded the corner and saw Locke directly in front of her as she did.

"Oh, hi Locke. How have you been?" Tamin asked, realizing she hadn't talked to them that day.

"Umm… hey Tamin," Locke said, feeling awkward as he recalled what Crystal said about Tamin.

"Is everything okay with you?" she asked, knowing Locke well enough to see that something was wrong.

"Yes, everything's alright," Locke said as he began walking forward again, his trajectory making it so he would walk right past the minccino.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes Tamin, I'm fine."

"Do you think you'll be coming to the next hide-and-seek game? Should only be like a half-hour off from now or something like that."

"Maybe, maybe not. I've got somewhere to go," Locke said dismissively.

"Where? We're still snowed in."

"Bye-a," Locke said without answering her question and passing by her. His movement shifted from being a simple walk to a run.

In the brief moment where Locke was passing by Tamin's side, the minccino got a look at him. At that time frame, Tamin got to see the bandages located under his scarf. The moment was long enough that she could see it plain as day and not question if she truly saw it or not, but short enough that she could not point it out.

As Locke dashed to the staircase and headed downwards, Tamin was left looking behind her on the space Locke used to occupy.

_"Just what the heck is going on with him?"_ Tamin pondered as her mind's gears started turning to make theories on a mental assembly line.

**End of chapter 17.**


	18. Roundabout

Productivity in the guild was slow, while day-to-day life was slower. It had been three weeks into winter at that point. Compared to being only one month in the guild for Locke and Tamin, it was just what life had become for them; boring attrition in trying to find something to do.

Most missions were cut off to avoid incidents similar to what happened with Tamin, keeping only the ones that meant life-or-death on most days, with it also being just the strong and more renown members who got first pick on that matter. Aside from the odd days where the weather was clear enough to make a move across the land, the majority of the guild was left on their own to find their own things to do.

Not much happened in those days, aside from one prank forged out of boredom where blast seeds met with bottles of alcohol which led to a small explosion that completely wrecked one entrance to the basement; it got sealed off for repairs. That was one day that would live on in memory for those who were there. But that was just an exception, and the rule was melancholy.

Mienfoo left to go off to her family, leaving Dewott alone. He tried to spend time with Locke, but Crystal made sure to keep him close to her and for him to give her his full attention. As for Tamin, she tried to pass the time by eavesdropping like usual, but found herself even getting bored with that. The first two weeks gave intriguing enough gossip, but it was a finite resource. For the third week Tamin simply gave up by grabbing random books the guild had to spend her time binge reading to carry her through the week.

So that was where the minccino had found herself. Sitting on a small chair on the second floor of the guild as she read an adventure book, accompanied by the sounds of the occasional footsteps of passers by that her large ears passively picked up on. As she had gotten a quarter through it and was just getting immersed in the storytelling, that was when Tamin heard someone speak directly to her.

"Heh, you're actually reading that?" he asked.

Tamin lowered the book and glanced to her side to see that it was Venasaur who had spoken to her.

"Hmm?" Tamin asked. Confusion sounded in her voice, as although she had been punished for strange things before, reading was not one of them. "Yes?"

"Wow, that's such a nerdy thing to do," Venasaur snarked.

"I'm just doing whatever I can to pass the time," Tamin responded, annoyed, "Could you just go away?"

"Pfft, and THAT'S how you're passing the time, it's so, so stupid," Venasaur continued spouting off as he got closer to the minccino.

Tamin closed the book and showed the cover of it to him. "Real question, have you even read this book before?"

"Nah, I'm not going to stoop that low. I've got better things to do?"

"Oh, do you now?" Tamin said as she opened the book backup, returning to the page she was at.

"Yeah!" Venasaur said as he flicked his vines to slam the book back shut. "By like, a million times! Honestly, you might be better off just getting yourself knocked out and stunning yourself."

"Then if you have better things to do, why are you taking the time to say typical bullying things to me out of all things?" Tamin retorted.

Venasaur paused for a moment, then exploded. "Okay, that's it little miss 'I'm so smart', you're just a puny little rodent and need to shut up for once! What even have you accomplished in this guild? Nothing!"

He was getting gradually closer to Tamin as he shouted, with her leaning away in order to try to keep her distance from him. During the tirade, he never made an effort to hit Tamin or prepare any sort of attack, he only posed himself as intimidating. But to Tamin's mind, she already had a strong connection between people yelling at her and feeling pain.

Tamin dropped the book, slipped out from the chair, and ran under Venasaur's head to get away. She didn't attempt to argue any further, she didn't attempt to fight him, she only fled like her life depended on it as countless terrible memories came to surface in her mind.

"What the- hey- rodent, where are you going!" Venasaur shouted as he began to run after her.

She didn't listen, look back, or slow down. She took every turn she could as a method to try to shake off Venusaur, who couldn't turn nearly as easily due to his large size. But no matter how many turns she took, Vanasuar kept chasing her down.

Tamin reached the stairs and ran to the main floor, but only seconds after getting down, Venasaur came running after. So she continued running. Tamin easily could have called out for help from others, and that would have easily resolved the problems, but calling for and expecting help from others still wasn't something she was used to doing when she felt threatened. By herself, she ran down a hallways to get from a staircase room between the main floor and the upstairs to a staircase room from the main floor to the basement. Still taking as many turns as she could, she sprinted downstairs, the place she knew had by far the most potential to lose a pursuer in just as she had gotten lost there before. Venasaur continued following after the minccino down the hallway, but he stopped chasing her down the second staircase. Instead, he simply stopped in front of the doorway, and waited at that spot. Even when Tamin got down to the lounge and reached the center of it, he continued to wait.

As for Tamin at the bottom, she waited at the center for a moment, panting after her sudden exertion, and staying vigilant for any sound that sounded off, any sound at all.

"Tamin? Are you okay?"

She turned her head to look around the room, and saw that Locke was sitting on one of the pieces of furniture. Alone, and with a very confused look on his face, as well as still having extended eyelashes.

"Why were you running around like that just now?" Locke asked, "Playing some game with Scampi?"

"Uh, no. And I think I'm alright," Tamin said while beginning to ease her nerves. "Venusaur just chased me across the guildhouse, but it seems he stopped now on the top of the stairs now. Thanks for your concern."

"Huh, okay then," Locke said, beginning to understand more. "Well, if he stopped, you could be on your way now."

"Right, I just need a second to catch my breath…"

Tamin got up to walk on two legs again and began walking towards the other staircase to the upstairs, knowing that even if Venusaur was blocking one of the doors to wait for her, he couldn't be blocking the other. But as she confidently approached the staircase and looked up, she saw that the top few stairs and door had still been utterly destroyed. Wood was singed, splinters and glass shards were everywhere, and it was entirely blocked off by construction tape. Some wood boards and tools were also placed along the stairs below it to prepare for the repairing.

"Oh right, that's a thing," Tamin thought to herself as she took a second to gaze upon the site. It was like the moment of destruction was completely frozen in time with gates of tape preventing it from being altered. Much like a painting, it looked like a spectacle that specifically set up to be as such. And much like a painting, it didn't look like a space that could be entered or crossed.

Tamin walked back to where Locke was and looked back at him.

"That's not going to work. The staircase is still less than usable," Tamin informed him.

"Oh yeah. And I'm guessing Venusaur is still camping at the top of the stairs?" Locke asked.

"Most likely," Tamin replied. "So it looks like we're trapped down here for now unless we want to go through Venusaur…"

Figuring she had even less to do at that point, Tamin went over to the couch Locke sat on and hopped up onto it to sit beside him.

"Sorry to hear that," Locke said again. "I'd fight him myself if he was chasing you down and blocking that off right now, but I don't want to end up in more trouble then I already am in."

"Please don't," Tamin responded. "Say, what are you down here for? Most of the guild seems to be cooped up in their rooms right now."

"Explorin' the basement is the closest thing to an adventure I can have right now," Locke explained.

"Fair enough," the minccino said while shifting her place in the cough to go deeper into the corner and get more comfortable. "Are you not feeling well? I've noticed you're not quite as chippy as usual. I feel I wouldn't heard one of your gallows humor jokes by this point. Come to think of it, we haven't talked very much at all the past few days."

"I'm just not in the mood for that, sorry," Locke said. Truthfully, he remembered how Crystal told him to not to be with Tamin, so he was wanting to heed by what she said by not interacting with her more than he needed to.

"That's a mood. But regardless, one way up is destroyed and the other is blocked off. So for the time being, you and I are stuck together down here alone…"

"Yep, seems to be that way…" the shinx replied.

"Actually, that's not quite the case," another voice in the basement said.

Locke and Tamin turned their heads to where the voice came from. A second later, they saw Hunter the zorua slyly strut into the lounge. "For starters, it's not just the two of you."

"H-Hunter?! How long have you been down here?!" Locke shouted at the zorua.

"About twenty minutes," Hunter said calmly.

"And what are YOU down here for?" Locke asked, very accusatory.

"Hiding from Sylveon, learned about some good spots to use from the game with Scampi," Hunter said.

"Oh, and you really think-... okay, that's actually a pretty good reason now that I think about it," Locke said, his voice calming down.

"Mhm. By the way, sorry for that staircase being destroyed," Hunter replied.

"Wait, was that your doing?" Tamin asked.

"I was a part of it, yeah," he said, still casual.

"What happened?" Tamin asked innocently.

"To sum things up, I learned three things on that day. First was that the staircases make for a good, mostly vertical expanse of empty space if you can't go outside. Second is that the guildhouse is made out of not so good wood and could really use some renovation. Third is that alcohol based bottle rockets are just a bad idea in general," Hunter said to them.

"Well this is just wonderful. Now not only are we trapped down here with all the staircases blocked off, but we're down here with you as well…"

"Nope," Hunter said, smiling to himself as he was prideful in his knowledge.

"What do you mean 'nope'?" Locke asked.

"What you said wasn't, so that's why I said it."

"And what exactly was wrong about what I said?" Locke said, sounding like he was done with Hunter's nonsense.

"Not all the staircases are blocked off, and we're not _technically_ trapped down here," Hunter said, still having his information parsed around. "One might be destroyed and another blocked by Venusaur, but there are three staircases between the basement and the main floor."

"Wait a second, what?" Tamin asked while hopping down from the couch to go closer to him, "There's only two staircases up, what are you talking about?"

"Espeon's bedroom is in the basement, located directly below the office. Behind the desk in the office he has a trapdoor, which leads to a spiral staircase to get between his room and the office.

From what I understand, the office actually has a few locked drawers with some confidential information, he has it so he can transport it from places normal guild members aren't allowed to go to without ever having to go into the usual areas in the guildhouse.

But in our case, if we want to get to the main floor badly, we could sneak into his room and take that route."

"Wouldn't Espeon notice us if we did that?" Tamin asked.

"Nah, he's not at the guildhouse right now, he's off in town in some thick coats with Sebastien. I bet they're probably getting a pedicure together, I know that place is still active."

"Now are we sure this is the only place up?" Locke asked. "The basement is big. Like, really big. So maybe someone, sometime borrowed a way to the outside? Or we could try crossing the broken staircase."

"I've worked at this guild for four years, wandered this basement a hundred times, and I've never found something like that. Besides, would you even want to go outside in these temperatures?

As for the staircase, we aren't allowed to go there either since it's under construction. We're also bound to get splintered if we try going that way, and are probably more likely to be noticed if we go that way."

"So our choices really are to wait here for an indeterminate amount of time until something happens, or go through Espeon's room and the office to get to the main floor?" Tamin asked.

"If we're going to believe that zorua, then sure," Locke said, squinting in annoyance.

"Correct," Hunter confirmed. "I am merely bringing it up as a suggestion. I'm not going to take that path alone, so if you two are waiting here as well, I'll stay with you guys."

"I'm fine with waiting as well. It's not much different from what we normally do, and we have the bathrooms down here," Tamin said.

"Just as a heads up, I know Venusaur well enough that he'll probably wait for the meal bell for supper to ring as a way to force us up. So there's that," Hunter said. "Anyways, Locke, what's your call?"

The shinx looked between the minccino and the zorua, his head going between them as he contemplated what the best course of action was. The fact that was on his head the most was that Hunter said he wouldn't go alone, which also meant that he would stay in the basement with him if he did not go. After a few seconds based, his decision was made.

"Screw it, I'm not going to be stuck down here with you t- with Hunter. I'm going, come with me if you want."

"Alrighty then, you're decision. Espeon's bedroom is over there," Hunter said as he raised a paw to point at a room close to them. "I'll come with you. You might not like me, but you'll probably need my skills to get through. And Tamin, are you still going to wait?"

"Hmm. You know, I think I'll come along as well. The last two times I abandoned Locke was disastrous, first time for him and second time for me, so I think I'll just stick Locke so that another cat-tastrophy won't happen."

"Glad we've got a plan figured out then. Let's do this," Hunter said as he turned and began walking towards the bedroom.

"Have you done this before?" Tamin asked Hunter.

"I have not. I've made short incursions into his room before and noticed the staircase because of that, but I've never had a reason to take this roundabout route before," he responded. "Even still, I've got the skills that will help us. You're not nervous, are you?"

"Actually no, not this time," Tamin said as she lifted her paw up and looked down on it, wiggling the parts on it around. "I think I have what I need for this as well."

The three approached the room and stepped around it to look for an entrance. They found the room only had a singular door that could be used to get in. Unlike other doors in the guild that could fit pokemon much larger than them and had two doorknobs to open it for different sizes of pokemon, this door was comparatively smaller and perfectly sized for Espeon. It was a door that swung open their way, but as Locke stepped up to make an attempt at pulling it open, he found it was locked and didn't move more than a few millimeters. This was unusual, as the sliding pin locks the guild usually used prevented the door from being pushed inwards, not pulled outwards.

"It's blocked off, any idea?" Locke asked while turning to Tamin and Hunter.

"Espeon has it kept shut with a wooden bolt above the door, he lifts it up using telekinesis so he can get through," Hunter explained as he pointed upwards.

All three of them looked up, where they saw precisely what he had described. A wooden stake was what blocked the door from being pulled open.

"Let me get it," Tamin said.

She walked back a bit in order to have some distance. She ran on all fours to get a running start and when she got close enough to the other two, she leaped up to the door top.

The trickiest part was getting a grip and staying to the top of the door, but she managed to get both her paws on the stake holder. After that it was relatively easy to pull the stake upwards so that it no longer blocked the door from being opened.

Hunter pulled the door open as Tamin pulled the pin up. She briefly stood on top of the door as it was being pulled from under her, but after that she jumped down and let the pin fall again. The door was now open so that it could be seen.

It was an expansive bedroom, five meters by five meters large making it almost three times as large as the typical room guild members had. It was much better furnished as well, with colorful carpet all around the bottom of it and furniture that sectionized it. The piece of interest in the room was a spiral metal staircase that led up to a trapdoor in the ceiling, exactly as Hunter had described.

"Let's not make more noise then we need to," Hunter quietly said to the group as they walked in.

Locke and Tamin nodded in agreement with Hunter as they delved into the room.

Hunter and Tamin began walking towards the staircase while Locke stayed back for a moment to shut the door behind them. But as the two were halfway across, Locke noticed the door was blocked from being shut.

"Guys, this door isn't going to close," Locke said across the room. Trying to keep his voice low to not be louder than what he needed to be.

Hunter and Tamin looked to see what was going on, finding that the same wooden stage that was originally intended to prevent the door from being opened had fallen back down and was blocking the door from being closed.

"Right. Forgot about that," Hunter quietly whispered.

Tamin took a moment to think on what to do. She dug into her past memories of getting into places she shouldn't have and used the experience to think of a plan. After a second of pondering and looking at the problem, she came up with an idea.

"If we find something long, like a wooden pole, I could push the pin back up into its socket while someone else pulls the door close," Tamin said, also whispering.

"Good plan," Hunter whispered back, "I'll start looking for something."

"One second," Locke whispered as he stepped away from the partially open door, "I am going to make sure that we can open the trapdoor to Espeon's office before we go and trap ourselves in this room."

"You do that," Tamin responded.

Hunter and Tamin shifted their gaze away from the staircase while Locke scaled the staircase by himself. Now with their focus away, they both had ample opportunity to investigate the guildmaster's bedroom.

The first thing that Tamin's eyes had caught onto was a large, slightly worn ball of yarn in the room. At first she paid no mind to it, but then she looked around and saw no knitting items or things created out of yarn. Seeing what wasn't there caused Tamin to take another glance at the yarn with an uneasy expression as she visualized what the yarn's actual purpose was for,

She put the ball back down, and then glanced back to where Hunter was, seeing him through scan through a shelf that certainly could not contain any pole or object fitting Tamin's description of what she needed.

The books in the room had different labels, but no consistent theme for it. One was labeled 'Apothecary 101', another was 'Stone continent atlases', and there were a few adventure stories named things such as 'Retribution' or 'Quenched Torch'. But those weren't in Hunter's interest. Instead, the one book he grabbed was the singular one that did not have a label. He then opened it and began flipping through pages to glance at them. He knew he didn't have the time to properly read it, but he still tried to get at least a sense of what the book was. After a few seconds of looking, a sly grin formed on his mouth. "Well, I was right. Espeon does keep a diary," he thought, "and it looks like most of his entries are even on Sebastien as well."

Hunter closed the book and inserted it back into the shelf, making it look like it hadn't been touched. While the zorua had been doing that, Locke had managed to get to the top of the spiral staircase and just under the trap door at the top. He put his paw up above his head to push against the wooden trapdoor.

To his delight, it pushed upwards and let light seep into the created few inch opening. It temporarily hurt Locke's eyes to see the sudden light hit against him in the dark room, but they quickly adapted. He could recognize the walls of Espeon's office behind the desk as he looked through it.

Locke proceeded to lower the trap door down gently, trying not to create more noise than was necessary. Although escape to the main floor was right in front of him, he didn't want to leave the others behind and wanted to make sure that they were able to clean up their traces with closing the door.

Locke turned around from where he was and looked around the room. He was still on the spiral staircase as it gave him an elevated position to see the whole room and the other two in it.

"The trapdoor isn't blocked," Locke announced in a volume that he tried to make just loud enough so Tamin and Hunter could hear him but was still quieter than his norm, "Get the door closed. We won't be trapped if you do."

"Shhhhh…" Hunter made the noise to tell Locke to be more quiet, thinking that he was talking to loudly.

Tamin continued to search the room door something to get the door completely closed, while Hunter seemed more keen to use this opportunity to snoop around the room.

Both of them came across several locked containers in the room, some having a keyhole and others a combination lock. Even though no one else was allowed to be in his room, Espeon seemed to make doubly sure that they were secured.

There was a safe that they both assumed just contained money. But what was more curious to them was the other stuff. Things like small wooden boxes, unable to hold anything large, set on a desk and locked with a three digit pin. Most curious of all was lockbox hidden behind a large painting depicting a family of two eevee and the parents of a glaceon and flareon.

One in particular caught Hunter's eye was the small box with the three digit pin. He stopped himself to see if you could open it, finding that it was currently locked with the incorrect code.

"If he didn't mess with all three of the numbers the last time he opened this, then I could brute-force this." Hunter thought to himself.

He placed one of his front paws below the lock, constantly exerting pressure to try and lift the top side up. His other front paw he placed on the numbers, constantly flipping through the last of the three digits in the code.

He flipped it from 672 to 673, then 674, 675, 676, 677 and then 678. Once he flipped the code to that number, he heard a small clicking sound and was able to get the box opened up.

A sense of pride went through Hunter on being able to get into the box. His emotion was quickly turned to curiosity, however, when he looked at the box's contents.

It was a cushioned jewelry box that only contained three things; two identical rings and an untied knot. The rings themselves were clearly expensive; both having a gemstone that was two-thirds white and one-third blue for its color. The two colors being distinctly separate from each other instead of blended together.

After seeing what he could, Hunter closed the box back up and set the number back to 672 like how he had found it.

While Hunter was snooping around through Espeon's stuff that would not assist them, Locke examined a section of the room he randomly chose.

It was a small wooden bench that had caught his eyes, and what Locke went to check. The first thing he noticed on the table was a well-stocked and open medical kit, which had an unholy amount of bandages in and around it. Locke was confused on why he had these considering the fact that the infirmary wasn't far away. Making it further befuddling was the presence of various herbs, powders, mortar bowls, and complete medicines. He had a complete apothecary setup on that desk. But while it did have a wide assortment of items, none were poles like what Tamin described they needed.

"Has anyone found what we need yet?" Locke asked, still keeping his volume at just the right level.

"I'm still searching, but there ought to be something here we can use," Tamin responded.

"Nope," Hunter said.

"Are you even looking?" Locke asked Hunter.

"Just as much as you are," Hunter replied.

"Are you sure? Because earlier I saw you looking through books," Locke said.

"Just like I said: just as much as you are," the zorua said with a sly smile.

"You know, if we don't find anything we could just leave and close the door from the outside just like we opened it," Tamin suggested, "If we leave things how we found it then nothing bad will happen."

"Ah yes, the old adage of 'live to fight another day'," Locke said. "In this circumstance it isn't avoiding death to go on for another day, but then again, somehow being trapped with Hunter for an extended period of time is quite comparable to death."

"Let's not give up now, we should keep searching at least a little longer. We can do that soon if we don't find anything soon. Although considering Locke's history of less than good luck, we could make the safe assumption that 'soon' will turn into 'never'," Hunter responded to Locke.

"Guys, let's not be making these jokes and focus on searching," Tamin said, getting uncomfortable.

"How many pokemon does it take to get caught trespassing and shamed for it? The answer's just one. But together we can do it three times as well," Locke said, seemingly ignoring what Tamin said even though he could hear it.

"Guys, enough," Tamin said again.

"I'm sure we're not the first pokemon to do this before. But in our case, that'll actually make it easier on us, since we just need to find the bones of the last pokemon who had the hubris to attempt this. Quick, has anyone found a closet yet?" Hunter said, adding onto the jokes.

"Please stop," Tamin said, getting more uncomfortable.

"Now that I think about it, I'm not sure why I was ever complaining that I'm trapped in the basement with you. It's a whole lot better than being trapped with just friends, because if hours turn to days and we start getting _really_ hungry, then I can take out an enemy of mine to allow me to live on instead of resorting to a friend to do so," Locke joked.

"Locke, this isn't necessary," Tamin attempted to interject again, slightly raising her volume as she got more uncomfortable.

"I must say, you certainly are putting those illusions of your's to effective use. You're so tricky that you managed to trick yourself into thinking this was a good plan, and trick me into coming along," Locke continued on.

"ENOUGH," Tamin said, not necessarily shouting but raising her voice a bit and putting strong emphasis on it.

The two others looked at Tamin and had a moment of being perfectly silent. "Let's just find what we need to," she clarified, calmed down again.

"Sorry. But when this guy is going to try to challenge me at dark humor, I can't just let him win. This is my domain," Locke clarified to explain himself.

"You're not bad, kid. I'll give you that. But Tamin is correct, let's continue searching," Hunter said.

The three split up again, going to different places in the room. While splitting up, Tamin went over to check a few objects in the corner that were all covered by a thick white sheet. The sheet was even large enough that they all could have hidden under it if they wanted to. She didn't throw the entire sheet off, choosing only to lift it up and peek at what was lying under.

The exact contents caught Tamin off guard. It seemed like nursery equipment, or at least what one would expect to see in a baby shower. Safety locks, mats, child fences, some small bouncers and a changing table were all things she could find when she crawled around to look under the sheet.

She turned her focus to the fence pieces, seeing them as segments that could connect to each other at the sides and were each a few feet long.

"_These should work,_" Tamin thought to herself as she grabbed one of the segments with her paws.

It was heavier than she expected it to be, with distinct clangs that were created while she dragged it out indicating that they had steel parts to them.

"Guys, I got something that'll work," Tamin said as she pulled one one of the fence segments out from under the sheet, "Come, help me with the door."

Tamin created more sound than she would have liked with the partly steel object, but that didn't stop her from getting to the door and Hunter from joining her.

Hunter stuck his paw under the door while Tamin grabbed the edge of the fence segment to point it up towards the stake. She summoned up the body strength to handle it, but it took her a moment to aim it right and get it to be pushing the stake up.

Once he saw the stake was pushed upwards, Hunter pulled the door towards him. Smoothly going under the pin and pushing the makeshift tool out.

The pin could be heard dropping down again. This time on the other side of the door and preventing it from being opened, just as it had been before they ever came.

"Alright," Locke whispered to them, "the evidence someone broke into here is erased. We can get out of here now."

"One second. I'll need to put this back," Tamin said as she began going back to the corner with the covered baby equipment.

Hunter nodded in agreement with Locke and began walking towards the spiral staircase. Locke closely followed behind him as they both got on the staircase.

Once she made sure the fence segment was back where she left it, Tamin positioned the sheet back to how they were previously and headed after the two boys. Getting to the base of it when they were almost to the top on her soft feet.

Hunter waited a moment to make sure Tamin could catch up to the top. Once everyone was accounted for, he pushed the trap door open.

The light seeped into Espeon's abode from his office, and was particularly blinding to Hunter with his dark-type eyes, however he still had special awareness of everything so he could continue forward with his eyes closed. Locke pushed the trapdoor open, far past the test he had previously done. For a moment, he actually felt he was going through a mystery dungeon with Tamin and Hunter as his companions.

It was fully opened, and Locke walked up into the office, entering from the corner. As he stepped up, Tamin and then Hunter came shortly after, the shinx's tail accidentally hitting Tamin's face for a moment as they were packed together. But sure enough, they were all in the guildmaster office and they closed the door behind them.

They didn't pay much attention to the room's layout. While they were seeing it from a new perspective, it was still something they had seen before. A desk was in front of them, a white curtain with some mass under it was in the other corner that was behind the desk, shelves were present as normal, and they didn't see any other pokemon in the room.

The three breathed a sigh of relief as they saw the door out. After all that happened, they didn't do anything except walk straight towards the way out, keeping their eyes on the goal they had been working towards.

But just as they began walking beside the office desk, the white curtain began shifting with whatever mass was under it not staying still. Tamin was the only one who sensed something was off, prompting her to stop for a second to look at it. But before any of them could properly react or get on the other side of the desk, four ribbon-like objects shot towards them, all coming from under the curtain. Tamin got a sense of panic as one wrapped around her tail, Locke extended his claws and attempted to dodge them, but the suddenness of when they came out made him fail to get away fast enough as one grabbed onto his harness, and Hunter got feelings of deja vu and disappointment as two wrapped around his chest and neck.

With the ribbon-like objects grabbed onto all of them, they were all forcefully lifted up into the air. Sylveon tossed off the white curtain over him and looked at all three of them. Out of survival instinct Locke tried to slash at Sylveon to break free, but he quickly repositioned himself to make him miss.

"Well well well, who all do we have here? Certainly none of them are Espeon," Sylveon said as he rotated all three of them to look at him. "Firstly, we have the zorua who just can't help himself in trying to find new ways to break the rules, despite knowing the disciplinary action ahead of him."

Hunter didn't say anything in response, only giving the expression of embarrassment back.

"Next we have the repeated offender shinx. Same one who complains about his harness yet seems dead set on trying to prove why he needs it," Sylveon said while looking at Locke.

"Hey!" Locke shouted back, still angry and looking for a way to get free from Sylveon.

"Lastly, we have the lone minccino. I'm honestly surprised to see you trespassing like this as thus far you've seemed totally docile. Then again, the influences you've been spending around does more to explain why you would attempt such a stunt," Sylveon said while looking at Tamin, who was still being held upside-down by her tail.

"I really didn't want to be a part of this, and I promise everything is alright," Tamin said while still upside-down, trying to take advantage of how Sylveon saw her as docile.

"All mischief makers who decided to be screwing around the guildmaster's bedroom, which you are explicitly not allowed to go into without permission," Sylveon said while bringing all three of them together.

"Just for the record, I wasn't trying to get you all caught and punished by tricking you and taking you down with me." Hunter spoke, talking to Lock and Tamin instead of Sylveon"I genuinely was trying to get us all out of the basement unscathed. This really wasn't what I wasn't hoping would happen."

"Ah, so you're the leader of this mischief making party," Sylveon said to Hunter while lifting him closer, "Makes sense. You're a regular with defying the rules."

"Can you please put me down?..." Tamin said, getting progressively more uncomfortable being held by her tail and pulling her arms and legs back because of it.

"One minute," Sylveon answered, "I need to check what the punishment for this trespassing of yours is."

Locke pulled his claws back as he knew fighting would put him in more trouble, but still made minor squirming movements. Sylveon moved them all behind him, and walked a few steps to retrieve a book using his paws. Afterwards, he set the book down on the desk, opened it up, and began reading through its pages.

The book contained the guild's rules. It began as just a single page in someone else's handwriting, but that page was followed up with addendums and new rules added later on. After a few pages, the book transitioned into being in Espeon's penmanship instead. Sylveon looked carefully for rules on trespassing, while Hunter tried to read the book as well, Locke was still squirming, and Tamin attempted to read but was unable to do so upside-down. After a minute of studying the rules once more, Sylveon spoke again.

"Alright. We're going to have to do some forensics on Espeon's room to make sure you did not break, steal, or dirty the room at all. But assuming that all you did was enter his room for a short amount of time then leave, then the only punishment you will have to face is a one hour grounding," Sylveon looked up from the book to say to them.

"Grounding?" Locke asked.

"It's the wording written down in the book," Sylveon clarified. "They just want you to be put into a single, small room for an hour without being able to leave. Confinement, like what Hunter was put into for forty-eight hours (just for not nearly as long)."

"Oh… so waiting in a room like this office?" Tamin asked.

"Well… yes, but we usually do an empty room in the basement," Sylveon answered.

"This room has a lock on its door, so we could just wait here," Tamin said. "It'd be a lot more comfortable them me getting carried back downstairs like this…"

Hunter's eyes widened as he had a realization along with a plan. As a result, he played along as well.

"Y'know, it is said that the office is one of the most boring places in the world, and at the end of your life you'll never wish you spent more time in the office. So really, this is the perfect place since Espeon is gone anyways," Hunter argued. "Plus, do you really want to try dragging Locke all the way down there when he can shock you at anytime?"

"Okay what the heck, I'm not going to do that," Locke chimed in.

"Hmm… Let me think," Sylveon spoke.

While still carrying the three, he took a moment to look around the room, looking at all the different shelves, compartments, and drawers. For many of them, he used his paws to open them up and look inside, or test to see if they were locked. After going through them, he grabbed a silver key and spoke again.

"Well, I suppose this room will suffice, but don't make me regret this. You're not allowed to tamper with anything you're not meant to here, and if you do your punishment will be extended," Sylveon said to all of them. "Now, can I trust to let you down again?"

All three of them nodded in agreement.

"Glad there are no complications."

Sylveon set them all down on the ground. Once they all had their footing again, he pushed the desk so that it was covering the trapdoor, turned to walk out of the room, and locked it behind him with the silver key he had grabbed. Locke, Tamin, and Hunter were now alone again.

They stared at the door that had just been locked for a second, and then turned to one another again.

"Thanks for that, miss Tamin," Hunter said to the minccino. "I can promise that this office is a lot better of a place to be in then a room downstairs."

"To be perfectly honest, I was just wanting to get set down immediately," Tamin explained while rubbing the base of her tail. "That was exceptionally uncomfortable."

"Well… up here or down there, we're still stuck together," Locke said. "It's like I'm stuck in some kind of purgatory, forced to have an existence that's boring for a long time. Then again, isn't purgatory a place to reflect on what you've done? I'm sure you could do well with a few years of that, Hunter."

"This is the ideal place to be since there are things to read, and it's not entirely blank," Hunter explained. "But if you fancy going mad because of a blank room over having to read, then sorry that you've been denied that."

"Let's not get into arguments over the hour we have to be here," Tamin interjected. "It's just an hour, you can wait that long. Assuming Sylveon doesn't find anything incriminating on us."

"Yeah, I'd like it best if we just didn't talk during this time," Locke agreed.

"I agree as well," Hunter said. "Sylveon is probably heading down to check Espeon's room right now. But at that time, we're in here, the door is locked, the trapdoor is blocked, and the books are ready to be grabbed."

The three split up. Hunter first turned and started heading to the desk to begin searching what was available on it, Locke still had the adventurous demeanor he had when going through Espeon's room and headed towards the door to begin looking for ways out, and Tamin remained in the middle of the room for a moment longer before she saw some curious shelves that were high up in the room, so she started climbing up to get to them.

The first thing Hunter did was to hop up onto the desk and begin grabbing at any paperwork he could to read. Having the opportunity to have access to all of the information and plenty of time to read it was a dream come true for him. Most of the papers were just missions that hadn't been accepted yet to be added to the questboard, things that weren't of much interest to Hunter. But the first thing that truly caught Hunter's eye was a paper that depicted the rankings in the guild. It read as:

"Herald |Espeon |Male | Age 14 |No sp. accommodations/notes|Rank N/A

Eryth |Umbreon |Female| Age 15 |No sp. accommodations/notes|Rank N/A

Niot |Chatot |Male | Age 10 |No sp. accommodations/notes|Rank N/A

Rickter |Sylveon |Male | Age 11 |No sp. accommodations/notes|Rank N/A

Tera |Audino |Female| Age 8 |No sp. accommodations/notes|Rank N/A

Armin |Lucario |Male | Age 13 |No sp. accommodations/notes|Rank 1

Max |Arcanine |Male | Age 7 |Has an extremely large size |Rank 2

Rustin |Meowstic |Male | Age 6 |Has allergies to certain spices|Rank 3

Hunter |Zorua | Male | Age 7 |No sp. accommodations/notes|Rank 4

Brinn |Dewott | Male | Age 5 |Has known medical issues |Rank 5

Scarlet |Mienfoo |Female| Age 6 |No sp. accommodations/notes|Rank 6

Ryder |Decidueye|Male | Age 14 |No sp. accommodations/notes|Rank 7

Torund |Venusaur |Male | Age 12 |Needs access to sunlight |Rank 8

Eden |Nidorino |Male | Age 8 |No sp. accommodations/notes|Rank 9

Yuki |Vulpix |Female| Age 9 |No sp. accommodations/notes|Rank 10"

The report continued down for over a dozen entries, but lacked any information on Locke, Tamin, and Scampi on it. Hunter scanned down the entire report, studying it carefully, and then setting it down afterwards. He did enjoy the information, but knew he wanted something more.

Hunter looked down at the drawers on the desk he was on, seeing what would normally face away from any normal guild member who entered the room. Each of the drawers had a different label applied to them. His eyes wandered over the compartments labeled "New Missions", "Active Missions", "Completed Missions", and "Inventory". But when he noticed the one labeled "Confidential", he knew he had hit the jackpot.

The zorua reached down to try to push the handle to open it, but as expected, it was locked. An iron keyhole was embedded on the drawer's side which taunted him. Knowing that breaking in would likely get him immediately kicked out of the guild right there, Hunter got back up and turned to look up. As he did, he saw Tamin above him, on a high up shelf that could normally only be reached by Espeon's psychic or Sylveon's feelers, examining what contents were up there.

While Tamin did that, out of the corner of her eye she noticed Hunter looking up at her from the desk. She moved her head to look at him more clearly, and as they made eye contact, Hunter performed a silent gesture to call for her to come towards him. The minccino noticed this, but was unsure what to immediately do. She remembered all the things he had done with Locke and even the time he had pranked her. Yet at the same time, she was filled with a great curiosity on what exactly he was intending, and couldn't help but scheme ways to get Hunter into punishable trouble. After pondering, she began climbing down and going towards Hunter, but with great precaution.

She climbed onto the desk with him, made sure there wasn't anything nearby he could somehow use, and joined him.

"What is it?" Tamin quietly inquired.

"Hey, there's something I have that I want to show you," Hunter said both quietly and affectionately.

"What is it?" Tamin asked back.

"Here, let me show you," Hunter said as he went back to the side of the desk with the drawers.

Tamin tip-toed to follow Hunter, making carefully sure there was nothing that could create a mess- or even worse- lasting paw prints. After a few seconds she reached where Hunter was and saw what he saw.

"See all those drawers and papers?" Hunter asked.

"Yeah?" Tamin asked back.

"I know you like reading and folding, and there's an acre of those delights down there. Lot's of juicy information as well. Want to check it out with me?" he offered, speaking as someone does with a partner in crime.

"Isn't this stuff we're not supposed to be looking at?" Tamin asked, still keeping her voice down.

"Mostly stuff we're supposed to ask to see, and some semi-secret stuff too. I bet there's even stuff on what they think about Locke and you down there. But the _really_ secret stuff, that's locked up."

"Locked up?"

"Yeah, in that," Hunter said while he pointed to the 'Confidential' drawer. "It'd be great if we could get into there, but we have to settle with what we have. This is why the office is so great though."

"Hmm…" Tamin sounded while she stared at the drawer.

"Are you alright?" Hunter asked.

Tamin's mind began calculating different options she had at her disposal and the likely outcomes those actions would have. While her desire to read what was offered was limited, she was formulating the idea of getting Hunter into an incriminating position where he would be punished in, perhaps even getting him into a punishment similar to what happened with Locke. Once she had done a few seconds of theorycrafting, she knew what her next order of actions would be.

"Give me one second," Tamin said.

She turned to look at the top of the desk again for some items. After a moment of searching, she retrieved a letter opener knife and a single paper clip that was left on the office desk from when Niot was last there. With the items, she partially unfolded the paper clip and went back over to the edge of the desk.

"I'll give you something you'll love. But to do that, I need you to promise that you'll never tell others about what I am about to, and you'll go with the story that this was all you're doing. Befitting with how you're usually the mischief maker here," Tamin said. "Promise?"

Another sly grin appeared on the zorua's face, indicating he knew what was going on. "I promise sincerely," he said.

"And can I trust that isn't a lie?" Tamin asked.

"Tamin; yes. You can believe me."

Tamin used her skills at bluffing to deduce that the zorua was not telling a lie and was being truthful, even though she knew he was good at deception. She nodded in agreement, and then began climbing down the side of the desk.

Supporting herself off of a lower shelf, Tamin stuck the blade and paper clip into the keyhole and began tapping on the different pins inside. She spent a few seconds at it, a few seconds in great suspense as the only sound was the noise of tapping on metallic objects as she adjusted the individual pins. But before stress could truly begin, a distinct and satisfying *click*. Tamin then rotated the knife to turn the keyhole with it, and pulled the drawer open.

"There," Tamin said to Hunter, "Remember: you were the one that did that."

Hunter was left stunned in amazement for one second, but once he shook it off, he responded with an "excellent job," pulled the drawer further open and hopped inside of it.

Tamin then bent the paper clip to look the most like the original state it was in as she could, tossed it in a trash bin, and put the letter opener back where she found it. She didn't put her paw on the drawer itself throughout the process, as she knew to avoid leaving any paw prints as evidence.

However, while Tamin and Hunter were off doing all of that, Locke was still near the office door and studying all edges of the room for any potential place to squeeze through. After careful examination, he concluded that there really were no ways out of the room besides the single door and the trapdoor. He even checked the ceiling for the possibility that there were three rooms on top of one another, but he had no dice in that regard.

Even though they could possibly move the desk with their combined strength, Locke knew that they couldn't then escape Espeon's bedroom due to the pin being on the outside of the door, save for the narrow chance that Espeon's bedroom also had a secret way in and out. As a result, he was limited to just the main door. That was all that was between him, and freedom with having access to the entire guildhouse. In turn, the only thing making that door be an obstacle was a small lock on it.

Locke focused on the door knob with the keyhole. After getting full focus on it, he began charging with electricity, letting it flow around his fur. As he knew he had time to kill, he took all the time he needed to prepare.

Once he was totally ready, Locke discharged a single, extremely thin, and focused bolt of lightning at the side of the doorknob. It instantly blasted the knob off, taking the lock with it. Once it broke from the door, there was no longer anything restricting him in the room.

But as the lightning was discharged and objects were broken, Tamin, Hunter, and surely others in the guildhouse heard it as well. The zorua and minccino immediately turned their heads towards the destruction, seeing what Locke had done.

"L-Locke, what are you doing?" Tamin nervously asked.

Locke didn't give a verbal response, he only made he bold stride to freedom as he easily opened the door and walked right out. Meanwhile, Hunter frantically got all the items from the drawer back in place, got out, and shut it as fast as he could.

Locke entered the questboard room, and began making his way towards his room. _"Well, glad I managed to get out of that. All said and done, I've seen stronger restraints,"_ Locke thought to himself. _"Anyways, I'm finally out of that. Now I can just get back to my room and-"_

As Locke reached the hallway and made the turn, he saw Sylveon standing right in front of him, with an expression that showed a mixture of confusion, surprise, and frustration. As they saw each other, they both froze.

"Yeah… this looks pretty bad, I'll admit. And if you're wondering why it looks bad- well- that's because it is."

Just as Locke finished saying that, he felt four feelers grab onto him simultaneously, and in different places. Just as Hunter finished getting back into position, he and Tamin heard angered stomping coming to the office door.

The next two minutes was one none of them wanted to remember. Sylveon forced Locke back into the room, and as the door was no longer able to contain all three of them, he laid down the law and resorted to far more direct methods of restraining, to which none could fight back without ending up with even deeper trouble. By the time the two minutes were over, Tamin had zip ties holding her paws together and her tail zip tied to one of the legs on the desk, Locke's harness was well strapped to a second leg on the desk while mittens were strapped onto his from paws to prevent him from cutting anything with his claws, and Hunter was well wrapped up in rope until he couldn't move his arms or legs, only his head and tail peeking out from under the rope. None could reach another, none could free themselves, all three were restrained with a clear line of sight on the broken door with Sylveon standing in front of them.

"You are quite the fussy fighter, aren't you?" Sylveon asked while standing over them. "Oh well. I'm going to have to seek out Espeon to ask what will be the proper punishment for all three of you. But because of your actions, I would advise you would expect at least three hours in this room now. You put yourself in this hole, and this is what you get.

Goodbye now. I really hope you don't search for a way to make it worse from where you are."

Sylveon walked in the room. Once again, leaving Tamin, Locke, and Hunter alone. Restrained away from doing any physical movement, the first thing that happened in Sylveon's absence was that Hunter and Tamin turned to look at Locke with stern gazes, and Locke blushed in embarrassment.

"Thaaaaannnnnkkkkksss, Locke," Hunter said as sarcastically as he could.

"Sorry…" Locke said. "I really shouldn't have gone out there."

"No crap," Hunter said back. "Now we all have to be like this."

"I'm sorry for that. But you're not exactly in the clear either, this was also your idea," Locke pointed out to Hunter.

"Well… yeah, I have to admit that," Hunter said, looking down at the carpet. "I'm sorry for this whole trip. I was the one who brought the idea up, and I've never actually gone through this roundabout route to the main floor before. It was always theoretical for me. In fact, part of the reason we went through this was because I was wanting to try it out. I just… didn't think Sylveon would be one step ahead here."

"Not to mention you're also part of the reason we couldn't use one of the normal two staircases," Locke pointed out.

"Apologies for that as well, that was also my bad," Hunter said, still sincere.

"Seriously, in what world are 'alcohol-based bottle rockets' a good-"

"I'd like to apologize as well," Tamin interjected. "While it might have not been my idea, I also didn't shoot it down and we could have easily backtracked out of it when we were in Espeon's room. I was also the one that led Venasaur to the stairs, which is the reason we chose to take this route. Oh, and I also spoke kind of loudly in the bedroom to get you two to stop telling jokes, and that might've been what Sylveon heard to catch us."

Locke let out a deep sigh in response before he started speaking again. "Well, regardless of who's at fault, we are all peas in a pod right now. It'll probably stay that way for three hours."

"Mhm…" Tamin replied.

"You know- come to think of it- I think this is the first time you've been punished by the guild, Tamin," Hunter said.

"Huh… I guess you're right with that," Tamin replied.

"I was just thinking about how you're taking this exceptionally well for someone who hasn't gotten this happen to them before," Hunter said.

"It is what it is, everyone reacts to things a bit differently," Tamin said, avoiding alluding to the fact that she was used to frequent punishments because of her parents. "Anyways, anyone know some songs or games we could possibly do together? To pass the time and distract from us needing to go to the bathroom, since I think we'll be needing to do both once we start getting hours into this…"

The three leaned back, getting into the closest thing to a comfortable position they could enter in their binds, and began the long wait.

**End of chapter 18**


	19. Port Rosiose

The ground was still a wasteland of snow, but the skies had relented to give somewhat clear weather. With the guildhouse far behind them, and destination far ahead, four walked over the roads.

"How much longer until we reach the coast?" Max the arcanine asked.

"We've still got-t another t-t-twenty kilometers to Ro-Rosiose," Braixen replied, stuttering as he talked, but not from being cold.

"So three-ish hours? Max asked again.

"Two-and-a-half idealistically, three-and-a-half realistically. We shouldn't expect to be able to hold a steady pace with all the turns and potential snow banks in our way," Armin the lucario stated, speaking as he adjusted the baseball cap he was still wearing on his head. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm just getting hungry, wanting to know when we'll be able to finally get some lunch," Max explained. "Man, I'm just starving right now."

"Heh, you remind me of my sister with that," Nidorino commented. "Always talking about getting some 'noms' and when the next meal will be."

"Well hey, I don't ALWAYS talk about that sort of stuff," Max defended himself, "I just forgot to get a snack before we headed off."

"I understand, I'm just making a comment," Nidorino calmly said, avoiding escalation.

"Oh, okay. But still, it sucks that it'll be awhile before we're at the city."

"B-be glad we didn't bring any of the sh-shorter 'mons along to the s-s-supply r-run then. We'd be going a-a lot s-slower if our group speed-d-d was based on the l-length of a m-meowstic's legs," Braixen told him.

"I'd honestly be okay with letting someone ride on my back if it meant getting to lunch faster," Max explained. "I mean, I've done it a lot before with other missions."

"Small members aren't useful during supply runs as they can't carry too much, and being able to hide isn't necessary or make precise attacks isn't necessary," Nidorino explained, though was talked over and what he said was largely ignored.

"Well we'll be picking up a whole lot more than just lunch and the weight of a pokemon when we get there," Armin informed the group, speaking in a leaderly manner. He pulled out a list and began looking at it. "The list of things we were tasked with getting and bringing back to the guildhouse is quite extensive, it's supposed to be one big supply run for the whole season. It's mostly medicine stuff, but there's also some machinery parts that Mawile asked for that'll be a burden. We're also supposed to get some scuba equipment that can properly fit on a rockruff, a shinx, a minccino, and a mienshao- apparently."

"Th-that's right," Braixen said. "But Port Rosiose trades a crazy amount with the other continents, so it actually shouldn't take us too long to cross off the list. I'd call the walk there and back the hard part."

"Now that I think about it, are you sure you're the best member for this?" Armin asked as he turned to look at Braixen. "I know psychic types aren't too physically strong, and we're going to have to be taking a lot with us. Maybe someone like Nidorina would've been better."

"R-relax, I c-can c-carry more than my weight-t-t. Rosiose was the city I was h-hatched and-and g-grew up in, so I t-took this mission s-since it could be a ch-chance to go back to my old h-home. For n-nostalgia's s-sake, y-y-know?" Braixen explained himself. "Besides, I f-figured you would need s-someone who knew the p-proper etiquette-t-t for the c-city and how to navigate th-the roads."

"That's probably wise, although I've been studying those matters as well," Nidorino noted.

"Fair enough," Armin said.

"Tell you wh-what, M-Max," Braixen said while he turned to him, "when we g-get there, I can sh-show you the ideal r-restaurant there. Provided it's still open, at least."

"That'd be nice."

"Mhm. A-ss for you, A-Armin and Nido, j-just try not to get f-f-frostbitten on the walk-k."

"We'll be fine, we have coats," Nidorino said.

"Mhm..." Armin added on, his head turning to look off in the distance again instead of at the others on the team, and adjusted his baseball cap again.

"Now that I think about it, why do you have a coat on, Braixen? Wouldn't you be fine with your natural heating?"

"W-well, I m-menti-tioned the r-reason for my coat earlier," he said.

"What was that reason again, then?" the poison type asked for clarification.

"Proper etiquette," Braixen said, adding on a slight movement of having his pawns faced upwards and bobbing down.

Nidorino just rolled his eyes in the same direction Armin was staring off at, and the four kept moving down the roads.

As they continued through the plains of white, the commonality of structures gradually increased. Around the halfway point they would only see one cabin every few minutes, but as their destination was getting closer there would almost always be a structure within their vision, and various different types of buildings as well.

An hour later, they saw a distinct landmark come into sight a distance away: the top of a castle peaking over the horizon. The sight of it gave a large moral boost to the traveling explorers as it gave them a clear view of their goal. They picked up their pace from there, watching the castle towers slowly become closer and more clear as they walked forward. Soon enough, the rest of the city made itself clear to them.

They approached it from a hill top, where they stood on the same level as some of the taller buildings and above all the roads. From their perspective, even the larger pokemon were but small dots moving around the streets and alleys. In stark contrast to the fields of white snow, the port's roads had been either completely plowed out or melted down; it was a bastion of clear walkways and diverse colors among all that surrounded it and the seemingly endless ocean that expanded past it. It was utterly massive, and would take hours to just make it from one end to the harbours.

"Th-there she is," Braixen said. "It's n-nice, isn't it?"

"Yep! A real beauty she is," Max said. "I've been here a couple times before. Most things seemed to get so much smaller when I evolved, but I swear this place only got larger."

"Well yeah, that's kind of what cities do: they expand," Nidorino stated.

"Being the biggest t-trade c-center on the continent-t also helps quite-t a bit-t," Braixen added on. "A-anyways, do you g-guys want to go straight-t-t to getting the s-supplies in the guild we were tasked with, or should we hit-t-t by some r-restaurants and relax-x a bit-t first? Because I know a great c-cafe not far from here that I'd love t-to show you."

"Well… we aren't expected to come back to the guild today, so we've got quite a lot of time. I say we get some grub!" Max exclaimed as they continued looking down on the city. "Armin, what do you think?"

"Either or," the lucario said.

"It's said that shopping on an empty stomach is unwise, and there's a chance of getting robbed when we're seen walking around with the inventory. So when we're going to have to do both eventually, I think the ideal order is clear," Nidorino said, analyzing the situation. "But we should keep an eye on the time."

"Settled it-t is then. Come with -mme, I know of the best way to get into the c-c-c-city," Braixen told the group while being the first to take the next steps forward. "Provided things haven't-t changed t-too much, Spice Avenue will be way t-too crowded t-to move through quickly, but there are some c-closeby roads th-that'll get us where we want to be quickly."

Moving again, they descended down the hill to enter the urban streets.

No longer looking down on the streets from above, they emerged inside the city. The buildings stood taller than them and were stacked upon each other so densely, they couldn't even see the ocean behind the countless brick structures.

The pokemon around them were an interesting sight on their own. Instead of being naked or clad in only their own fur, they were all properly dressed in outfits of linen, cotton, wool, and silk. It wasn't just coats to protect against the cold, but there was a clear sense of fashion in the different pieces worn. Red was clearly the favored color to have for the apparel, but gold was a close second. Much like how Braixen's fur was bent roughly in the shape of a dress despite the fact that he was male, clothing like dresses and skirts weren't seen as explicitly female clothing. It wasn't unusual to see the boys and the men wearing those things.

Their first stops were at a district of restaurants to be able to fill themselves at. Max found a place to gorge himself on spicy food at, which Braixen intended as well (though he ate far more conservatively and with the etiquette he talked about, making sure his coat or fur didn't get messy in the process). Armin just went to the first place he found, caring little. Nidorino found a unique restaurant that served poisonous foods which only poison types could safely digest, giving it high exclusivity- he found the meal to be exquisite beyond words.

Once they had gotten their fill, the four grouped up again. They gathered at a public table of a small cliff, which provided a great view of the expansive ocean. Although with a taste of what the city provided, they only wanted to explore more of the constructed lands and see what other goods it could yield.

"Anyone have the time?" Max asked.

"It's three-twenty," Nidorino answered.

"Hey, can I s-see that shopping list-t Espeon gave us?" Braixen asked while reaching out his paws.

"Here," Armin said while handing it, his head locked towards the ocean and not looking at Braixen.

The fox took it and spent a moment looking over it, comparing the listed items to what he remembered of the city's layout.

"None of the places on h-here are more than an hour away from each other, so we've still got t-t-time," Braixen said. "C'mon, there's still so much to see in this c-city. We haven't-t even seen the ships or any performances yet-t. Couldn't-t-t we burn some more t-time?"

"I mean, yes, but we really shouldn't get carried away," Nidorino said. "Is there anywhere specific you're eager to go to?"

"All I want to do is s-some reminiscing, visit-t places from my childhood and all th-that… y-y-you kn-know?," Braixen said. As he spoke, his voice suddenly got less energetic and more somber, a sudden shift in demeanor provoked his resurfacing memories. His stuttering persisted, though.

"Well, that is fair enough," Nidorino said.

"I don't know, I don't really like the city. It's so cluttered and loud, I'm worried I'm going to be running into people all the time," Max expressed. "I honestly preferred the walk here over the city."

"You could just continue the mission then," Armin said, still starring off into the distance to watch the ocean's waves. "It doesn't really take two to shop, just to carry everything back."

"That could actually work quite well. You get what we need while the other three of us can explore for a little bit. We can meet back up for dinner," Nidorino suggested.

"Yes, that's what my th-thoughts w-were," Braixen interjected, still sounding a little down. "Armin and Nido, do y-you know what you're p-plans are?"

"I think I'd like to check the castle out," Nidorino plainly said.

"Umm… I guess I'll just check out the docks," Armin said, not paying full attention to the conversation.

"Looking to get some inspiration for your artwork?" Max inquired.

"Yeah. Sure," Armin said, seeming to snap out of a trance he was in and finally look towards the team again.

"Are you s-sure you don't-t want to check out the f-fashion st-stores for that? Or m-maybe a museum? I can promise there are a lot of th-things to find in th-there that would get-t ideas flowing," Braixen proposed.

"I'll consider the museum, but I want to go down to the docks right now," Armin said, his focus going back towards the water.

"I guess we have a plan then," Nidorino said. "Braixen, where do you believe would be the best place for us to meet up at? We can do that at five or six."

"There's a large st-statue of an e-empoleon right-t outside the c-city castle. Th-that'll make an ideal place s-since you can see the castle's t-towers from almost-t everywhere in the city, making it a p-perfect landmark."

"Great plan. Alright, let's split now."

The four got up from the public table, each going their own way. Armin made his way down towards the coast, Braixen took some side roads, Nidorino had his head on the castle towers, and Max went down the city's main roads to take the shortest- but not necessarily the fastest- route to the shops. As Nidorino walked away, he stopped to take one more glance at the now empty table and the other three who had been looking away from it.

"I guess that's what you reap from a team of mostly introverted pokemon," Nidorino quietly said to himself.

Braixen left the gathering areas of the city. He put the major roads behind him, and instead took the smaller routes towards a residential district. They weren't the paths a tourist or visitor would ever take, nor the working pokemon who wanted to get to and from their house, work, and whatever places they could spend the money they earned at. No, it was the paths that would only ever be walked by those who lived at the residential district or coming to visit those that did. Or in this instance, it was one that formerly lived in the area.

While his legs walked across the city lanes, his mind took a walk through memory lane. He had gone through them so many times he could naturally navigate them, and recognize many different structures from his childhood. Braixen could understand quite well what Max meant when he said that everything seemed to get smaller when he evolved, as Braixen could recalled what the places looked like when he was just a small and young fennekin, and he could swear they were completely different roads. Even if he was a braixen for a year before leaving the city for living in small towns instead.

But despite his romanticized and refined memories, as he took a closer observation, he noticed that it wasn't just a higher up perspective that made it seem like different roads. The weeping willow tree he remembered on the foot of a hill was no longer there; a kiwi tree sapling had took its place. There was a phone booth that he remembered calling his family at when he was lost after his sister left him behind that he had remembered because of that, but that phone booth was now completely different, replaced by stronger woods and tougher glass. The house of his single middle school friend was repainted from a unique yellow to a generic white, complete with a "FOR SALE" sign in front of it. The clear area reserved for fairs or when the carnival would come around was now overwritten by a dirty and lifeless construction site, it even took a neighborhood's playground with it.

Braixen had wanted to go back to the home he remembered, but as he looked around and saw all that was changed, he wasn't sure he could call it the same place. He had remembered once hearing that "you can never go home again," and those words were ringing in his mind with every difference he spotted. It was enough that he wondered if he was better off never going there so that his memories were untainted. Taunting him was the fact that the other pokemon walked around as though nothing was wrong; it made him even question the accuracy of his own recollection.

He made his way closer and closer to his old home, going across many blocks and cobble streets. But before he could get there,his eyes caught the sight of a building in particular: an abbey on a small hill. It wasn't altered, it was one of the least changed structures there. Yet, his attention was captured anyways. He paused when he first saw it, staring for a few seconds, and then he changed his route to walk towards it.

Despite the fact that it was his destination, he wasn't quite sure why he was going towards it. He knew exactly what was over there, and it wasn't anything that would be good for him to see. There was nothing to discover, nor anything positive to resurface. Yet, he felt an attraction to it, a binding for himself to it.

Scaling a stone staircase to go up the hill, he reached the abbey and the graveyard right outside of it. A deep, dark feeling came in his chest and made him feel he had become several grams heavier, it hurt like a knife stabbed into his chest, yet he was still attracted to walk into the graveyard.

A sheet of show covered the cemetery, but not deep enough to leave any headstone unreadable. Rows and rows of the pokemon no longer living, all equally silent. Feelings deepening, yet still guided by a force through it. His legs guided him to a specific one he knew. His pace slowed more and more, but eventually, he made it.

He stood directly in front of a gravestone, looking downwards on its engravings.

"Katarini Skye.

Braixen.

1823-1826.

May she find peace and freedom from turmoil."

It wasn't just any pokemon that laid below that dirt; it was his sister. The feeling in his chest intensified, tears began sliding down from his eyes, and he clenched his paws together. The cursed feeling seemed to expand across his whole chest and just got heavier and heavier, until the weight was so great he could no longer hold himself up. He collapsed onto his knees and his head fell down. The floodgates released and he cried; ugly and loudly, bitter of grief and guilt.

When she was alive, he was only able to think about how much he despised her, how much of an absolute narcissist she was, the ways she tormented him, how many friendships she had ruined, how he would have absolutely loved life without her. Yet now that she was dead, the only thing he was able to think about is how much he wished she was still alive.

Braixen stayed there for a minute longer; weeping into the snow until his throat went dry. As he stayed there, a Mismagius in robes walked across the graveyard and noticed him in his grief. He floated over to him and raised his hand up.

"I'm sorry," he said over Braixen's shoulder.

He lifted his head up to look towards the source of the voice, but only saw a rough blotch of purple and white through his tears. He had to blink a few times to make out what he was looking at.

"You have reason to feel grief. But know she is finally at peace now. And if she were alive, I'm sure she would want you to move on so that you might accomplish things in life that she was unfortunately unable to," the Mismagius said to him.

He doubted the cleric's words, but found solace in them nonetheless. He finally managed to hold back his tears and pull himself off of the ground.

"Th-th-thank you," Braixen uttered while pulling himself up.

"Rumi, I presume?" the mismagius cleric questioned.

"Y-yes, th-that's my name. H-how did y-you know?" Braixen asked.

"I know all who rest here and their stories," he stated.

"Oh. Y-y-you do?" Braixen asked for confirmation.

"Yes," the mismagius said with a node. "How your sister went is a tragedy: pushed to commit suidice before even finishing high school. It's terrible to imagine life ending before some would say it truly began, and worse to picture things from her perspective. It is an ending I myself have done my best to prevent for those still living."

"Y-yeah. And I j-just f-felt I had to v-visit her again," Braixen said, turning back to the gravestone.

"I understand perfectly," the cleric told him. "I'll leave you here and shall not bother you again. But know the graves are being taken care of, and that it wasn't your fault."

After hearing those words, he brought his paws to his mouth and another round of tears rushed out again. Not wanting to disturb the grieving with more words, the cleric mismagius silently put one hand on his back reassuringly, and then left to return to the abbey.

While Braixen was in the cemetery and the others were still trying to find their way through the innumerable intersections and roads, Max was doing his best to continue the mission solo.

He managed to get to one of assuredly many marketplaces at the city, and was frequently checking the list to ensure he had gotten everything requested, and crossing the items off by holding a pen in his teeth with everyone he got. Max knew he didn't want to be carrying around heavy metal equipment for hours without help, so he did the items in order of most light to the ones with the highest weight.

First stop was to pick up some spices that were promised to make the sub-par food at the guildhouse be strictly par instead. The second was some cleaning supplies and chemicals to keep the guild tidy and sterilized. The third stop took longer than the first two combined; stopping by a pharmacy to pick up infirmary equipment and medicine took a long while due to the gate of bureaucracy that deters addicts from taking it all to themselves, which Max had to trudge through. The hardest thing was a prescription for a drug that Mawile requested that Max couldn't even pronounce, much less knew. He ended up getting a bottle of small orange capsules, ones he had never seen before either in the infirmary or previous supply runs.

Once he was finally down with the pharmacy, he sat down on the sidewalk and turned to look at the list once more and read the next entry that wasn't crossed off.

"Essentia taplet"

The arcanine's eyes went over it several times to make sure he was reading that correctly, and sure enough, found those to the words inscribed. Max had no idea what that was, or could even have been referring to. He was stumped in a roadblock, having no clue where the next place he needed to go was.

Desperate for a way to make progress, he lowered the list, raised his head up, and began calling out to the crowd.

"Hey, can anyone help me out? Does anyone know what this is? Hello? Anyone?" he called out to no pokemon in particular, only the streams of civilians pacing by in hopes someone would come to aid him. It took a few times to call out, but eventually, he heard someone respond to him.

"Whadya need help with there, pal?"

Max turned to look at the speaker, and had to look down as well. It was a swana in a fluffy coat. She looked up at him, eager to help.

"Do you know what a…" Max looked back at the list,"... 'Essentia Taplet' is, and where I could find it?" he asked.

"Hmm. Now that's a doohickey I haven't heard of in ages," Swana said.

"So do you not know where I could find it?" Max asked.

"'Course not!" Swana raised one of her wings and pointed to a storefront down the street. "Try there first. If they stopped carryin' it or got sold out then I know a couple other places you can try out."

"Oh, thank you so much, I will be sure to check that out," Max told Swana.

"Glad to help ya!" she said. "I can tell you're not quite from 'round here."

"How so?" Max asked.

"Yer accent and just your general confusion, to be frank," Swana told him, smiling in a bit of pride.

"You don't quite sound like anyone I've heard from this city either, to be honest," Max told her.

"I've been bouncing between this city and my sweet home out in the country," Swana explained, still in her shameless and heavily accented voice. "It ain't hard to get to and from when I can fly 'cross the continent. My father's and my mother's family are split between them. I'll be stayin' in the city in the winter where it's better insulated."

"Alright, I see. Here, we can walk-n-talk."

Max began moving to the shop that Swana had previously pointed to, and the flying pokemon came along with him by staying to the side of his head.

"For someone who is only here like half the time, you do seem to know the city quite well," Max complimented her.

"Urban or country, I always know my way 'round. Seeing things from above helps wonders, y'know?"

"Makes sense," the arcanine admitted.

"And you? Waddya think of this place so far?" Swana asked.

"Well… not my style, I'll be honest. It's all cramped, almost hard to breath in, and there are lots of buildings… lot's of flammable buildings…" Max said, his voice lowering with a mixture of fear and sadness.

"Keep yer embers to yerself. Where are you from? How long have you been here?"

"I'm from a town a few hours East of here, right on the spot where three counties meet each other. I'm from the exploration guild on this continent, and right now we're doing a supply run. I'll be leaving from here tomorrow once I've met up with my teammates and we get everything we need."

"Oh my! I hadn't realized you were someone so major," Swana admitted, surprised. "Pardon me."

"Oh no-no, it's fine. I'm not wearing a badge or much to identify with, so I understand," Max awkwardly tried to explain.

"Ah, got it-got it. So, what's the life of an explorer like?" she asked as she continued to follow.

"Well, it's high risk and high reward. I've had my low points… unfortunate low points… but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't quite adventurous!"

"I see. Tell me more, I sure think that I'm interested…"

Even though Max and Braixen could quickly reach their destinations, Armin and Nidorino took much longer due to urban chokepoints and crowding. Unlike open nature, euclidean geometry could be essentially disregarded as a path half as long could take twice as long to traverse in a world of so many obstacles, even for most direct routes from point 'A' to point 'B'.

Armin moved towards the docks, but the crowds only got denser and denser as he got closer. More than that, it even got warmer and the fires of welcoming flames from furnaces roared in the key mercantile areas. It was made to be inviting to those who came from the west, but was equally nice to those coming from the east like the lucario.

Eventually, he did manage to make it to the wooden platforms and shipyards of the docks, coming in exactly on time to hear the bells ringing on a red and white supply ship that was docking in. He saw that half the ships had white masts on them, while the others operated purely from engine power. Armin leaned against a building, getting himself ready to spend a long time down there doing nothing in particular.

Looking past the ships, Armin could make out two- maybe three- islands far in the distance if he squinted and it was between waves which concealed them. Besides those tiny blips, the ocean continued on past how far the eye could see, until the blue of the water met with the blue of the sky.

The lucario walked along the wooden docks for awhile, tracing the edge of the city while his head continued looking far off. Even with pokemon all around him, many of whom in extravagant styles that were made to attract attention, Armin sought out angles where he could view the ocean and civilization without any pokemon standing in the frame. He found the pokemon there strange anyways, no matter how many times he saw it, he couldn't help but find it strange to see male pokemon in feminine clothing. However, those opinions stayed within his mind. He did not speak to anyone, nor did anyone speak to him.

Some say a picture is worth a thousand words, and that is a sentiment Armin would agree to. Hypothetically, if he were tasked with writing a paper on what he did during the time the four team members had split up, Armin would use most of his paper just describing the sights he had admired with a hundred descriptors. But Armin wouldn't have much else to write about either.

Nidorino took the longest to reach his destination out of everyone there. While this was mostly due to his species rather sluggish and methodical movement, the increasing security as he got closer to the keep was also a hindrance. The vicinity around the castle had pokemon who replaced their vibrant and varied clothing with stately and monotonous uniforms to convey allegiance. While they came in different shapes to fit different types of bodies, the patterns were homogeneous.

He reached a rather large square, designated with some small moats littered around the edges in a symmetrical formation and stone benches. The centerpiece of the square was a massive metal statue of an Empoleon. Approaching the statue, he saw a metal plague bolted at the stone below the statue labeling the pokemon as "lord Roseton, city founder."

Turning away from the pokemon statue, Nidorino looked around at the living pokemon around him. Not needing to look for long before he saw one of the guards on their usual patrol and keeping an eye on him.

"Hello sir, do you know where I might be able to find-"

"Sorry, but we're not allowed to talk while on patrols," the guard responded.

"Fair enough, I'll leave you be,"

Not getting any help from them, he followed his own nose. Nidorino moved on from the square and began moving around the castle, staying far enough to avoid getting into any trouble for being on the grounds. He examined the structure's details closely, seeing how almost every brick was placed, how it opened up to have floors wider than the ground floor with great pillars to keep it up, and all the different windows. With considerable interest, Nidorino studied the architecture in every angle he could get.

In retrospect, he wasn't sure what he was hoping for when he came to that section of the port. Obviously the nobles would have been too busy for him to engage in any meaningful interview with them, and the interior would have been barred off to him. But when he did study the building, letting his imagination flow on what it would be like to construct something as grand as it and rule it, it made the walk there feel worth it for him.

After making it fully round the slightly purple tinted castle, he moved on to pacing through the city roads again. His next point of interest was a grand library only a block away, which he walked towards while taking his sweet time; he wasn't in any rush as the decided meet up time was still a while away. Once he eventually got there, he immersed himself in the many rows of tall shelves.

The library was large enough that it would be appropriate to give it the prefix of "royal". Three stories tall, and many balconies to overlook the lower floors at. All built with old, yet well maintained wood. Figuring that if he couldn't ask anyone for knowledge, he would simply study it himself. Grabbing what books on the city's politics he could find and a nice table, he sat down to start reading them.

There was an irony to be found in the fact that he was spending time in the city doing the same thing he usually does with his free time at the guild; an irony not lost on Nidorino. But it is what he chose nonetheless.

The noble house that lived in the castle and ruled the city was named Tirntile, while the greater county they controlled was named Breindirg. The house was founded 102 years ago, beginning with a founding member named Rosianna and they began building the city as one of their first orders of operation. Turntile was notably a matriarchy, favoring the daughters over men so that the next generation of the house that would be the head of the house could remain as the same pokemon species. Although since some generations would inevitably fail to produce a daughter or that their daughter would perish before being able to have children, that was not always possible. Nidorino glanced over their family tree and saw the first few generations were Empoleon, then the next few were Dragonite, then there was a long span of Floatzel before the current head and one before that were a Blastoise. It always remained in the water I egg group though.

Fitting with the city's massive fleet of merchant ships, the house did have a historic focus on trade. Many members in the family had been tagged as economists in the books Nidorino read, and the books boasted of the massive prosperity they created. But just about every other issue seemed rather brushed up upon.

Since the guildhouse was also touching the Riten county and Mon Pear county that were owned by House Breach and House Splendor respectively, Nidorino also attempted to research those. But he could tell that the books granted by the library were horribly biased when House Breach were attributed with adjectives such as "Shadowy", "Shady", "Cult-like", "Cunning", and the House Splendor were branded with words like "Pretentious", "Self-indulgent" "Prejudicial", all while no such negative words were used for Turntile, it was laughable. He hadn't seen that one-sided of reporting with the books at the guildhouse and local library.

Even still, he still sought objective information that couldn't be diluted by a biased perspective from the library books. With this approach, he found that House Splendor had been around for 76 years and its founding member was a shiny gardevoir and the county itself was rather small in number of cities and square kilometers they had in their domain. On the other hand, House Breach was by far the most recent by being founded only 34 years ago and appeared to have a focus on knowledge seeking. House Breach had the least amount of objective facts and cited information out of them; Nidorino closed the books when it started getting the distinct vocabulary of a conspiracy theorist.

The poison type pokemon poured himself into research for a little while longer, but then noticed that the room he was staying in seemed to suddenly get dimmer. Raising his head from the reading material, he saw that the sun had just passed by the room's main window and there was now a shadow cast over him. The passing of the sun served as a reminder of the limited time he had to Nidorino. Thus, he decided it was time to wrap up. He returned the books to their shelves- double checking that it was the right place- and bid farewell to the library. He returned to the square with the Empoleon statue and waited there.

Nidorino waited on the stone bench by the statue. Not even twenty minutes after sitting down, Braixen stepping into the square, still having a remorseful look on his face. Max and Armin took longer, but not so long that they began to worry. Out of all of them, Max was the only one who got to the square with a smile on his face.

The four regrouped and began their mission without lollygagging again. They talked some about what they did when alone, but not as much as two extroverted people would. After reuniting, the rest of the day was rather unremarkable, only heading from store to store to pick up the more weighty of the items mentioned on the list they were given that Max had not already gathered himself. Afterwards, all they did was seek out a hotel to stay the night at.

The difficulty came not from finding a hotel, as many stood several stories tall and in easily visible locations. Instead, difficulty arose in finding one that wasn't obscenely expensive and also didn't look like it brought a chance of them getting robbed while sleeping. It took half an hour by itself, but they found a place. Exhausted with walking all day and breathing in air with low humidity, they got two rooms that they checked themselves into. Armin and Max went into one room, Braixen and Nidorino went into the other.

Armin watched the sunset from the room's window, wishing he had brought something to draw with him on the journey and regretting that he had neglected to do so. But eventually, he and all the others went to sleep in the beds.

For most of them they had a sound rest complimented by the sounds of the city. But not for Braixen, despite him being the most acquainted with the city of them all. He squirmed in his bed a night, shifting with some small sounds coming from his mouth while nightmares stirred in his mind.

For most, dreams and nightmares were all fictional events, and almost always nonsensical. But those weren't what troubled Braixen. Instead, it was unshakable memories from the past that haunted him, ones that would never reside. Many say that the frights that fiction can bring pales in comparison what reality shows, and that was a proverb that Braixen could attest to.

Through the entire night, Braixen was tormented by the dark memories from his grim past of being shouted out by his sister almost every day, of having no friends at school because of her, of living with his bully everyday for years, of being abandoned in the city by his sister and left lost, of feeling like he could not take it any longer, of getting rope from the basement, of coming into his sister's room while she slept, of strangling her, of carefully propping her body on on a chair and putting her head through a noose, of kicking the chair out, of seeing her 'suicide' being reported, and of trying to figure out just what he had done.

**End of chapter 20.**


	20. The Long Haul

**NOTE FOR READERS: I have re-organized the chapter orders. This chapter is the newest to be posted, what used to be chapter 20 is now chapter 19, and what used to be chapter 19 is now chapter 21. I have also added a new scene onto Deep Dark, as well as other smaller edits. I would recommend going to check that out.**

The morning light came up from over the hills, illuminating the city from its borders to its docks. The diurnal pokemon had begun waking up to start their morning routines, though the exact hour they came awake again varied greatly.

Max, Armin, Braixen, and Nidorino were among those thousands of pokemon in the city rising from their beds. Once they were done yawning, rubbing their eyes, and saying their 'good morning's to one another, they continued their objectives.

Relieved to see the goods in the condition they left them in, they gathered up the cargo and their belongings, ate breakfast at the inn, and checked themselves out. On the way out, they saw a few pokemon waving them out, not just the hotel staff but other guests as well; like a pikachu and a vulpix. They could tell that some recognized them as guild members, and that gave them a small smile. No longer exhausted, it did feel vaguely melancholic to leave the place, it felt so much cosier than the guildhouse.

Aside from a few stops here and there, the four went straight to the place they had originally entered the city at. The city residents consisted of diurnal pokemon walking to work and the nocturnal returning to their homes, most wise enough to keep at a steady pace to avoid slipping, but there were outliers who rushed to their destination and tumbled down onto the hard ground when they went over puddles of ice. Then there were the pokemon who flew or levitated off the ground, who just went as they pleased- as fast as they pleased- without regard for slipping hazards.

"Y-you know, it is pretty odd how the b-best fighters in the guild were used for a mission that amounted to doing some errands in t-town," Braixen said as they walked uphill through the cold brick streets. "I think I'm fi- not complaining, it's just a little odd in retrospect. I'm glad I did come here."

"Strength is applicable in situations outside of combat. In this circumstance, transport," Nidorino said.

"Yee. Plus we might have to do some fighting on the way back," Max said.

"Careful now, you might have just jinxed it," Nidorino said.

Shortly after he spoke, a Jinx in the street stopped and turned her head to look at them with a confused look. Nidorino looked back at her, but didn't say anything.

"Heh," Braixen said. "Say, does anyone st-still want to check out other places in the c-city? We've still got t-time and there are so many other p-places I haven't shown you guys yet-t."

"Well actually, there's a Swana I met yesterday that I'd to visit again-"

"No, let's just move on to get back," Armin interjected.

"Are you sure? I think it'd be helpful to speak with her again."

"Yeah. We've gotten what we need from this city, let's just get this stuff back to the guild," Armin doubled down.

"Okay."

Armin took the lead for the group and Max was shortly behind him, while Braixen and Nidorino lagged behind a bit.

"Do you know what's up with him?" Braixen asked Nidorino while turning to him.

"My best guess is that it's just social exhaustion, he doesn't want to be around other pokemon after spending a while in a city. So he wants to get back home as fast as he can," Nidorino said, speaking quietly enough so that Armin wouldn't hear.

"Mhm…"

They walked the rest of the way out of the city, watching the place getting gradually less dense on their way out. Their final stop was just to use the bathroom as well as get some drinks and travel snacks for the trip, and after that it was back to the vast untamed wilderness.

As they walked up the hill the way they originally came in, Braixen turned around to take one look back at the city to say goodbye to it, unsure of when he could return. The look back took a good thirty seconds as he had flashbacks towards being a fennekin with his sister in the city. But after studying the city again, he rubbed some loose tears out of his eyes and turned around to walk onward with the team again.

There was a pervasive wind chill that made it so the journey was colder than it was when they were coming towards the city. The snow was of a consistency that was very light and made of countless loose particles that didn't stick together, causing it to be picked up by the wind and briefly fly around. The worst consistency possible for those wanting to build something out of snow or wanting a snowball fight, but the best consistency possible for those wanting to shovel out a pathway. But those things didn't matter for the four travelers, as they walked through the lands regardless.

A thick bed of clouds rolled in, blotching out the sun as the sky appeared to be an endless canvas of white and grey clouds parallel to the ground. Looking up, one could see the clouds moving around from the force of the gale.

"Looks like there's a possibility of a storm," Nidorino said as he looked up.

"Yeah, looks possible…" Max said, looking up as well.

"Should we try to look for some coves to wait out storms in? That's how we survived back in that mission where we were rescued from the storm," Nidorino answered.

"Maybe, but there hasn't been any snow yet. Let's keep moving for now," Max said.

"Mhm. Besides, we're not in t-too much m-mortal danger b-because half of the t-team are f-fire t-types and we have good s-survival skills, so I th-think we're- so I don't th-think it'll be t-t-too hard to keep everyone above hype-hypothermia t-temperature levels," Braixen gave his thoughts. "Armin, what d-do you think?"

"..."

"A-Armin?"

"Oh, w-what? Sorry," the lucario finally spoke up.

"Did y-you hear what we w-were saying?" Braixen asked.

"I didn't. Sorry, my mind was elsewhere," Armin explained.

"Please be more aware, we're on a mission and we don't know what could happen out in the wilderness," Nidorino scolded on Braixen's behalf.

"Alright, alright. No need to pester me," Armin said defensively.

Braixen's mouth shifted to form a frustrated pout, but he didn't say anything more. The four kept walking onward.

Another hour into the journey, and the winds intensified. Some light snow falling onto the ground also served as metaphorical salt coming onto the wound. All of the white particles flying around acted like a fog that severely limited their vision. Even if they focused, they could only see about three meters in any given direction. As a result, their vision was limited to a bubble four meters in radius that moved with them as they continued forward. Anything out of that bubble was out of their knowledge; there could be corpses, treasure, or threats lying just outside of that short, short range, and they would be utterly oblivious to them existing. This uncertainness of what could be just out of reach that made them be more vigilant. It was vigilance through paranoia, but vigilance nonetheless.

"Are we even sure where we are?" Max asked in staggering confidence.

"Well we've stayed on this cleared out road this whole time, so I can say with certainty where we're not: off the path," Nidorino said, trudging ahead along with them.

"JJ-judging from what landmarks I c-could make out, I'd say we're like a fi-fifth of the way th-there. I-I think th-there's a forest of tr-evergreens pretty c-close to here that we c-could see if it wasn't-t-t snowing," Braixen chimed in. "I'd s-say we're in that really v-vile range where we are just far enough from the c-city that we can't expect to receive any security from it, but just c-close enough that we might see the city's residents h-h-h-"

"Wait, there's something coming towards us," Armin said to the group with a concerned voice as he was passively using his aura sense to attempt to peak beyond the short bubble they could see in with their eyes.

Just as Armin finished saying that, a projectile came straight out of the fog of snow towards the lucario. He easily dodged it, and under closer inspection, the projectile was a large shard of ice and seemed to be improperly aimed, rush fired at a strange angle.

"Highwaymen!" Braixen managed to yell out to finish his previous sentence.

While the sound of wind still remained the largest sound in the ambience, they were able to hear several creatures moving through the snow in the direction the shard came from. They turned to face that way, but then heard the shuffling through snow from behind them as well, and from their side, and just about every other direction around their painfully limited radius of visibility.

Braixen grabbed the stick wand he had and performed a flame attack that he sent out as a blind shot, unsure of the exact location where their adversaries were. Max had a similar tactical mindset, preparing a Flamethrower attack to spew flames around, but instead of focusing it on one particular area as he typically had done, he moved his head while performing it to create a wide arc of flames. The fires from both their attacks created momentary wind and illumination, both giving them a brief glimpse into what was further away, where they could see images of claws and white fur.

Armin persisted in using aura sense to take inventory of what all surrounded them, and also began charging up an aura sphere to retaliate. Nidorino had no targets in close to fight, so he backed to the center of them and began planning out what to do in the situation. All while that was happening, more attacks were coming out of the blur.

"They're able to recognize where we are even through the flying snow," Nidorino scrutinized. "I believe that's something some ice types are able to do, or they have another sense they're using."

"Y-yes, ice types, I-I've read about-t th-this stuff in the p-paper" Braixen said while dodging out of the way of another ice shard, which ended up hitting Max's hide as he got out of the way. He was stuttering more than usual from the frantic nature of the situation.

"They'll have to close the distance eventually to rob us, but this really isn't a good place to hold out in," Nidorino continued to say, constantly wiping his head to watch for the different areas an attack could come from. "Armin, do you have any idea how many there are?"

"Quite a few, I'd say somewhere between twenty and thirty," Armin said, eyes still glowing from his aura sense.

"Th-that-t c-can't be r-right…" Braixen muttered to himself while Max was groaning in pain from several attacks making contact with his massive body.

"Braixen, you said there was a forest not far from here?" Armin asked.

"Should be just in front of- er- just to the r-right of the w-way we were g-going," Braixen said.

"I'll make the breakthrough," Armin said.

He unleashed the aura sphere he was charging up straight in the direction Braixen had stated. The sheer force of it counteracted the wind, cutting a clear path through the blur and hitting several of the bandits in its wake.

Armin sprinted off in that direction to follow the sphere, and the other three ran after him. Their attackers were left disoriented for a single moment, a moment that the guild pokemon took advantage of.

After a few seconds of running, trees began coming into vision. They all went around and into the set of trees to duck into the underbrush and branches.

"If the open isn't a place where we can hold out, then the woods will do well," Armin said as they enveloped themselves in the small forest. "Trees block ranged attacks quite well. So in order for them to attack us, they'll have to get closer. And at that distance, we'll be able to see them as well."

"Ah, good thinking," Nidorino said.

"Y-yeah. So we can start properly fighting back now?" Max said, still cringing from multiple wounds in his large hide.

"Yeah," Armin said, "this is where things will get fun."

"A-are you s-sure you s-s-sensed that many p-pokemon, A-Armin?" Braixen asked to make sure.

"Yes. Is there anything wrong with that?" the lucario responded.

"I-I've read the r-reports, and th-they never m-mentioned such a l-large group," he clarified.

"We must have been marked as high value targets of some sort," Nidorino said.

"We've talked enough, let's keep moving," Armin commanded.

The four hurried to get deeper into the woods, and the wind carried the sounds of the highwaymen barking orders to find them. The pawprints they left in the snow created a track they could be followed by, but they were able to find some stones and falled wood to spring off of to mitigate how much of a track they were leaving behind.

Their pursuers couldn't keep up at perfect speed, and the distance between each individual one slowly got further separated. Eventually, Armin quickly jumped up onto one of the barren tree branches and waited for one of the bandits to continue chasing from beneath them. As they came, Armin jumped down from the tree and slammed his arms down onto them with the added force of gravity, knocking them out instantly on collision. After taking that one out, they managed to find a hiding spot under a small hill with loose roots overhead. There, they stayed silent and the bandits lost track of where they were. They began dividing up as they searched for them.

Waiting in the hiding spot, the guild pokemon pulled their compasses out to see which direction was which again. After some time in silence, and with their sense of direction restored, they began whispering to one another.

"So, what's the plan now?" Max asked. "Should we just try to pick them off one-by-one with ambushes?"

"They can still see better than we can in this environment, so we're unfortunately more vulnerable to ambushes than they are," Nidorino whispered back.

"I've got a better idea," Armin said while he had his flare in one arm, and was pulling out flammable paper meterial from his bags to wrap around the flare's stripe with his other hand.

The other three turned their heads to look at the lucario to see what he had in mind.

"You three start heading eastward again to get back to the guildhouse, I'm going to create a distraction to divert them away from you," Armin instructed. "When you see or hear my flare go off, you are not to go towards it. Understand?"

"But how will we know if you get into danger and need assistance?" Nidorino inquired.

"He won't, trust me," Max answered Nidorino. "I know him well, he's not one to mess something up like this. If he's got a plan, we should trust him."

"Yes. Now you three go, they'll find us eventually out here," Armin said as he turned his body westward but still had his head turned to look at them. "Remember to stay just close enough that you can help each other at a moment's notice, but just far enough so you don't get caught up in the same net or burst attack."

"Y-yeah, we all know the t-two meter rule, Armin. N-no need t-to r-remind us," Braixen said as the three began moving to the east, following their compasses.

Armin began sneaking off in the opposite direction, going elsewhere in the woods with his head low.

Without the aid of his companions right behind him, Armin was now alone, so carefully he snuck through the trees and leafless branches, whilst sustaining his aura sense. Using that ability, he could make out the faint light blue blurs of the various souls around him. With this awareness of who was around him, he went into full stealth to discreetly get past all of them. He stuck to lower ground to avoid being seen, and often halted mid pace to wait for some of the souls to move past before he started moving onward again.

Deftly, he avoided getting into all confrontations, as he knew that even if he did fight one of them, then the inevitable screams would cause others to come to the position. His backpack of supplies also weighed him down and complicated the stealth process, but he pushed on nonetheless. It took a few minutes, he found a small clearing with an open view of the sky. Once there, he placed his flare on the ground around a stone and pointed it upwards. He lined the paper that was tied around the flare on the store, pulled a matchbox out of his bags, lit a single match, and then used it to light the end of the makeshift paper fuse. As the paper began burning, trees shielding it from the cold winds, he left the flare behind and began backtracking. He stepped over the footsteps he previously made to minimize the number of tracks he was leaving behind.

Thirty seconds later, a bright orange flare spark was launched into the air over the forest, creating a loud burst of sound that the wind carried around. As it went off, all of the highwaymen pokemon turned their heads towards the sound and burst. For a moment they had some hesitation on what to do, until a Walrein captain of them began barking out orders.

"Heh, looks like they're lost and trying to call for help. C'mon men, let's get him!" he declared.

The various bandits managed to rally together to ambush the position where the flare had come from, ready to swarm whatever had launched the flare out. Brandishing their preferred forms of attack, they jumped into the small clearing. But when they did, all they found was the base of a flare on the ground. The flame from the artificial fuse had burned off the flare's stripe, causing it to be activated as if it was torn off. They all stared down at if for a second, the realization of what had just transpired dawning on them. The various highwaymen turned back to look eastward, but the lucario was long gone at that moment.

Forest behind them, open field ahead; Max, Nidorino, and Braixen made it out to continue their journey back to the guildhouse. They double checked what they had on hand, and were relieved to find that nothing was lost. For a moment, they felt a sense of safety; compounded by the fact that the wind wasn't blowing quite as hard anymore.

Right as they were starting to discuss if they should keep walking back to the guild or wait for Armin, they heard light sounds coming towards them again. Looking between the branches, they saw the blue jackal pokemon emerge and come to rejoin them, him having followed their trail quite closely.

"That should take care of them long enough for us to get back," Armin said.

"N-nice flare t-trick," Braixen said to him.

"Thanks," Armin said as he began to talk past them. "As it is said, the wise warrior avoids the battle. Now come, let's get this mission over with."

The other three nodded and followed the lucario once more.

The final way back to the guildhouse was a harder journey than the one they had to reach the port, that was certain in the minds of all four of them. Colder temperature, less clear vision, much more weight down on them, and they had much of their energy already drained from evading the bandits. Yet their spirits weren't drained, quite the opposite, there was more enthusiasm in their spirits as they imagined the warm drinks and soft furniture that awaited them at the guildhouse.

Every hour and landmark was counted during the journey. The few small settlements they passed by offered far more peace than what they saw when exiting Port Roseose, and it was hard for them to not stay for longer.

When they got closer, everything started looking more and more familiar to them, reminding them that it was the lands they knew. Eventually, they could predict when everything would show up purely off of memory, for it was the places they had so many times when they were departing or returning from missions before. Until finally, they saw their beloved town just ahead of them. The town might have not been as nice when it was buried under a meter of snow, but it was beloved to most of them nonetheless.

They got inside the guildhouse, and immediately felt the warmth of a weathered and well insulated indoors reach their skin. As they met with Espeon and began taking off the cargo they brought back, with Braixen, Nidorino, and Max removing their coats as well.

Double checking the lists to make sure all that was requested was obtained, Espeon thanked them for a completely successful mission. "Take your reward, and your rest along with it," he said. "Don't worry about getting everything put away, you've done plenty already."

Finally done, they took their reward and looked at each other.

"W-well, I'm about-t r-ready to c-call it a day," Braixen said. "What about-t you guys?"

"I'm going to curl up with a nice book," Nidorino said, managing to smile a tad.

"Sleeeeeeep," Max said, hanging on the syllable.

"C-can't blame you, heheheh. Th-thanks for c-carrying the m-most out of all of us Huge help," Braixen said, managing to get a little more cheery as well. "And A-Armin? What about you?"

The lucario didn't immediately respond, nor did he look back at Braixen. Instead, his gaze seemed to be magnetized to the floor. After a second that felt unusually prolonged, he responded.

"I think I'm just going to head out again. I need to clear my head," Armin said.

"W-well yeah, b-but why he-head out? Wouldn't-t the g-guildhouse be a nice and w-warm place for you to be?" Braixen questioned.

"I just want to have a walk, that's all."

"It is below freezing temperatures and plenty of buildings are closed, why walk? Wouldn't a shower be better?" Nidorino asked.

"No, there are just some places I'd like to go to clear my head," Armin replied.

"Where could you possibly be wanting to-"

"Just let him head out," Max interrupted Nidorino. "It's his life, and he knows what's best for himself."

"Mhm…" Armin affirmed.

"Alright th-then. Enjoy y-yourself, luc'," Braixen told him with a small wave goodbye. But he had already turned to not be able to see the way.

The four dispersed again. Braixen went to his own room as fast as he could, wanting to get there before making contact with Yuki the vulpix in any way. Nidorino and Max took their time and walked at relaxed paces, while Armin immediately went out the way he had come in, keeping just his usual explorer's backpack on him. He didn't even stop by his room to drop off the money he was awarded, he only slid the coin pouch into one of the backpack compartments and went off on his way.

Armin walked across the thin layer of snow on the semi-maintained paths once again. This time, he went northbound. He had a destination in mind, but to those looking, it would look like he was intentionally trying to get lost. He took the obscure side path of an obscure side path of an obscure side path. The way took him into progressively hillier and thickly wooded land. Eventually, once it had been almost an hour since he departed, he saw a minor landmark of an extra tall redwood tree that he was looking out for. At the landmark, he took a sharp turn left, leaving the paths altogether and going straight between the dense, although now leafless, flora.

He spent a few minutes going through the deep, untouched woods. The branches lacking leaves made it easier to see ahead, and him being shorter than two meters tall allowed him to navigate. Once he saw some the ruins of half of a stone arch remaining, Armin knew he had gotten to where he wanted.

Armin entered a place of old stone ruins that was extremely secluded. Even flying pokemon would likely never see it as it was in a completely random part of the woods and had trees overlooking it. Save for the plants and snow, it seemed frozen in time.

The lucario stepped into the roads of the ruins between the stone structures, his paws stepping into the snow. The site wasn't large, smaller than the town the guildhouse was established in. It's purpose- long lost- wasn't the same kind of settlement.

Besides Armin were tablets with old ruins. Each written in a language no normal pokemon would understand, and the entire place was shrouded in mystery. Some mysteries Armin knew, some he did not. Some he desired to learn, some he was indifferent to. Being one of the only people who knew about the site gave him a feeling of safety in it, and Armin desired to be there as it gave off a slight, minuscule feeling of home.

The only sounds that accompanied the walk through his personal sanctuary was the wind and the snow being pushed down underfoot. He took his sweet time walking through it, eventually reaching the epicenter of it. It was a small town square, with buildings surrounding and facing towards it. The most distinct feature was a large obelisk on the north center of the square, standing eight meters tall and with writings of the same language. Below the obelisk was a now frozen pool of water.

He stopped in the middle of the square and looked at the top of the obelisk, his eyes slowly descending until it reached the bottom of it the better part of a minute later. Armin then went closer towards it.

He reached his paw down to brush off a layer of snow from the frozen pool, revealing the perfectly clear ice beneath. In doing so, he got a look at the reflection he casted into the ice. Armin then sat down in a lotus position where he was, continuing to gaze into the reflection as time seemed to flow everywhere except those ruins.

**End of chapter 21.**


	21. Deep Dark

**NOTE FOR READERS: The chapters have be re-ordered. This used to be chapter 19, but for thematic reasons and decreasing repetitious, it has been pushed forward to become chapter 21, pushing other chapters back in the order. Chapter 20 The Long Haul is the newest chapter to get released, so you should go and read that to see all chapters if you've been keeping up with chapter releases. However, I have also added a new scene onto the end of this chapter, as well as made other smaller edits, so I recommend checking that out as well. I apologize for the confusion.**

Deep into the heart of the frozen season, the guild was still stilled with attrition. While some of the more prestigious members got to go off on missions, the less fortunate were still snowed in. Among these less fortunate ones including Locke and Tamin themselves.

Even though there were the occasional things to break the status quo up, such as days of building snow forts, the occasional birthday and the few missions that were embarked on, the continuous state of the guild was still a mood-setter which served to establish an aura of boredom. One could call it 'relentless boredom', but that wouldn't be an apt description as relentlessness implies constantly pushing forward, and not much was moving at all during that time at all. Even news of approaching blizzards was trivial as the guildhouse was already weathered for them.

It was in that state that Locke found himself as well. He picked up the practice of taking naps in the middle of the day to pass the time, but his body couldn't sleep when it had already gotten fifteen hours of sleep in the last twenty-four hours. As a result, much of the time was him just laying in the bed on his side, awake with eyes open and occasionally flicking his tail to get some movement. Then again, he wasn't in much of a position to complain as it was his best winter he had known yet by virtue of the fact he was warm and well fed.

The blank wall of his room was like a canvas for him to set his imagination upon. No stimulus to be granted by it, only his own thoughts to swirl around in. His mind drifted around while he waited for sleep to finally take him again, with one of his random thoughts being him attempting to visualize an entire map of the guildhouse. It was then that recollection hit him:

There was that strange trapdoor hiding a staircase downwards in Sylveon's office in the basement.

When Locke remembered the anomaly, he stopped laying down and sprung up. It wasn't just another thing he thought of to entertain his mind, it was a mystery to be solved. No longer attempting to sleep, he sat in his bed asking himself _"What was that?"_, _"Did I really see that, or was I just imagining things?"_, _"What if it was a dream?"_ and _"Where did that go to if it was in the basement?"_

But he could ponder that all he wanted within the confines of his abode, but Locke couldn't procure answers ex nihilo. Although that was what made it more interesting, since it meant he would have to investigate. A smile appeared on his face as he rose up from the cushions and departed from his room. To him, it actually felt like a real adventure. Not just going through a room in the guildhouse that he had not seen before to a place that was familiar to him, but descending a mysterious staircase downwards into unknown places, perhaps even a mystery dungeon. _"It's gonna be like my best days"_, he told himself. Even remembering what happened with Espeon's personal room and office, he was still hyped up, for just wanted to explore something- anything- new, even keenly remembering how pathetic the last time ended. He had reached the point where his willpower to resist was exhausted several days ago.

The shinx didn't want to just waltz in alone nor unprepared. Locke wanted to gather supplies to gear up like he would for his typical expeditions, and knew that having a team of two people was over twice as good as having just one, as if one of them got fully restrained then the other could help them out instead of the journey ending right then and there.

Crystal was asleep, so the first thing he did was to go to Tamin's room right beside his own room to get a companion. It wasn't a terribly long walk anyways, and once at the door he raised one of his front paws to knock on it in hopes of a response.

"One second!" Locke heard Tamin say from the room, confirming that she was present in it.

Tamin jumped down from her hammock to land on the floor, then going towards the door to unlock and open it. Locke couldn't hear all of those due to Tamin's steps being light and his hearing being inferior to his.

"Hello?" Tamin asked while she was opening the door to reveal Locke.

"Hey Tamin." Locke responded,

"Oh hey. How have you been?" she asked back, now knowing who it was.

"Bored and stuff, the usual. Could I come in and talk for a minute?"

"Oh, of course." Tamin said while she stepped to the side and pulled the door more open to let Locke on.

Tamin had remembered everything Locke had done and said yesterday. But she still let him in for a private talk on the basis that she was still interested to see how Locke might try to redeem himself.

Locke went towards the center of the room and sat down on the carpet, watching Tamin close and lock the room door once he was seated.

"So." Locke started explaining, "do you remember the first chore day we had back in the fall, a bit after we joined the guild?"

Tamin got into a chair in her room. Once in she sat back to think.

"Yeah. I remember that." Tamin said, "What about it?"

"So, well, let me think how to explain this… so at one point I was cleaning a room that turned out to be Sylveon's office, I was just cleaning random rooms for the competition I was doing with Dewott, right?"

"Right," Tamin said, just wanting Locke to get through the story he was telling.

"Okay, well, I was cleaning that room and noticed there was something under the carpet in the room. So I lifted the carpet up and remembered seeing… a trapdoor. And under that there was a staircase downwards."

"Wait, what?" Tamin asked.

"Okay, look-look-look, I don't understand either. I heard Sylveon coming into the room so I closed the door and left. But I swear I saw that!" Locke said, trying to not sound like a madman. "But that's exactly what I wanted to ask you about. I want to go down there and investigate it with you, it'll be a nice thing to explore to break up all of this waiting. What do you say?"

"Umm… are you sure this won't just end up like what happened when we went through Espeon's bedroom?" Tamin asked, concerned.

"Oh come on, it won't be like that," Locke said defensively. "That was like two weeks back. We've learned lessons to avoid what happened there. Besides, we're not going down with Hunter, so there's no worry with him."

"I'm still not sure," she admitted. "I mean, from your description it sounds like just a celler of some sort, not anything too special. So I don't think it's really something we should be taking a risk on."

"But if it was 'just a celler of some sort', then wouldn't they use a different room in the basement? There are a lot of unused and locked rooms down there already," Locke pointed out.

"Huh… Now that you mention that, that is a good point," Tamin admitted, looking downwards as she tried to visualize it and figure out the puzzle.

"I could just _feel_ there was something more to that, y'know?"

"Not really, to be honest," Tamin said. "Maybe there's a more rational explanation to this, we could check some of the books on the guildhouse for info."

"I doubt there's anything to be found. But even if there was, that's just not interesting. Think about it, this could be a perfect opportunity to break up all this mundane stuck inside stuff going on. There could be a whole adventure down there, a sprawling dungeon for us to explore!"

"Well that's kind of the thing, I'm comfy with how things are now. I can just rest and read, with nothing threatening my life in the process. No responsibilities, no freaking out over not getting something important done, no consequences," Tamin admitted. "Sure there are some people that I'd like to get more distance from, but I don't think a short incursion down into whatever's below will give me that for very long. I like just laying down in my hammock and reading."

"Really? You like this?" Locke asked, befuddled.

"Not the ideal form of living, but I'd call it better than getting trapped in darkness or getting held upside down by my tail again as punishment," Tamin explained. "Sorry, I guess I'm just not adventurous like you are. Maybe ask Dewott? I know he's more of the type for this."

"Hmm…" Locke thought to himself. His gut instincts told him that he ought to go with Tamin, but what string of words could he say that would make her come along as well? Begging was neither something he wanted to do nor what he felt would be effective on Tamin, so it was a social challenge for him. "Tell you what, if anything goes wrong, if we somehow get caught, then I'll take the fall for you. I'll say it was my plan and try to find a way to make you go free. I'm apparently a troublemaker in the guild, so Sylveon will probably believe me anyways.

So what do you say? Will you come alone if I promise to do that? Please?"

Tamin looked into the cat's eyes. They weren't the eyes of ferocity that many had come to associate that particular shinx with, but eyes that showed innocence that veiled nothing more behind it. It reminded her of eyes that she would oftentimes make, or what she saw her younger brother make when put into precarious circumstances. That train of thought continued, and she remembered what if felt like to have that innocence crushed away and for the eyes to prove fruitless- the terrible, horrible feeling of getting dashed.

"...Fine. I'll join you, and we'll see what this trapdoor is about," Tamin folded.

"Really? Awe sweet," he replied.

"Start getting ready, I have a bag for myself. I'll just be twenty minutes."

"Take you time, not like we're in a rush. We're doing this to kill time, slash it down and make it show the interesting parts of life sooner."

"Yeah yeah, that."

Confidence restored and bolstered, Locke left Tamin's chamber and returned to his own abode. At near synchronicity, they withdrew bags they possessed from the compartments they were stored in and began searching for things to prepare with. Anything they could take without being suspicious was fair game, so they mostly took their own possessions and tried to avoid taking the guild's stocks. Locke put on the same bags he had before he joined the guild and geared up for how he used to prepare for missions, equipping himself with the like of oran berries, heal seeds, bandages, water, and some caffeine just in case. Tamin instead went with an approach reminiscent to herself when she would tap into corners she wasn't supposed to in her parents' household, getting small knives, pins, mini crowbar, a spool of string, and she stayed light with her loadout. Both knew flares were off the table as red flags would be raised if they attempted to obtain it, and they were too loud anyways to perform missions in secrecy with. Locke decided that he was fine with the light his body could already produced, while Tamin retrieved a lighter that was as large as her paw.

When the twenty minutes agreed upon were over, the minccino met up with Locke once more in his room. They then departed for the basement with Locke leading the way, still unsure if they would have only a few rooms or an entire complex to uncover.

Despite it having been two months and the basement being as confusing as it was when they first joined, Locke found no issue in retracing his steps to return to Sylveon's office. It was a route he could instinctively follow as he had been there once, even if he would be unable to draw a map to it consciously if asked to do so to prove a point. Tamin on the other hand had no idea where they were going, and felt uneasy. Every meter of progress made caused her stress to tick up just a little bit, and a second tick for when they made a turn. The vexing, uneven designs were as negative to her as always, and not helping matters was how stealthy Locke was acting, forcing her to do the same.

After a minute of sneaking, Locke saw what he recognized as the door to Sylveon's office. He stepped up to it silently on his soft paws and put his ear on the door to listen in: silence. Locke slowly opened the door to peek inside: devoid of life.

Locke gestures for Tamin to follow, which she heeded. Equally silent, she entered the room as well. Once they were both inside of the walls of the office, they closed the door behind them.

Things looked normal to Tamin, it was a typical office, if not a little barren like the rest of the basement was. But she stood back while Locke went to the same exact corner of the carpet he remembered interacting with. Like before, he managed to get a grip to lift it up. The minccino stepped out of the way of the uprooting carpet, and like before, the trapdoor that lay beneath was uncovered, save for a wooden board blocking it. It was just like the state he last saw it in, like it was frozen in time.

"Wow… well I'll be," Tamin quietly said as she looked down at the hatch. "You were right, it really was there."

"Did you doubt me?" Locke asked.

"Well, kinda," Tamin said. "I mean, your memory isn't great by your own admission, you don't know where you came from or what your exact birthday is."

"Well what did you think I saw?" Locke asked, confused by Tamin.

"I don't know, some loose floorboards covering a hole. Just not something this clear and distinct? Could've also been a dream, sometimes you can forget what is a dream and what is real. Especially for something as fantastical as a stairway into the unknown."

"I… Okay that actually annoys me that's how you think of me. Is there anything you've told me that I've forgotten?"

"Sorry…" she shyly admitted. "Anyways, let's check this out."

Tamin rotated the wooden board to adjust it to no longer blocked the door. The minccino then grabbed onto the circular trapdoor handle and pulled it up to reveal what was underneath. Sure enough, it was the same stairway into darkness that he remembered.

"Let me go down first, I want to make sure it can be opened from beneath before we both head down," Locke said.

"Good idea, I'll hold it open."

Doing what he was unable to do months ago, the shinx stepped down into the staircase, and Tamin lightly closed it on top of him. One second later, Locke pushed it open from beneath.

"Alright, we won't get trapped down here. Come," Locke said.

"I am."

Tamin withdrew a lighter from the bag she brought and came into the area with him. They shut the trapdoor, hiding enclosing them in darkness again. Locke began lighting his body up and Tamin flipped her lighter open and clicked it three times to produce a flame from it. Both bioluminescence and firelight illuminated the way again, and allowed them to make out their surroundings of a few meters around, allowing them to begin descending down. Locke's harness casted shadows onto the tunnel as it covered the parts of him that glowed.

The stairs were designed for pokemon slightly larger than them, such as Sylveon. There were no wooden boards, no stone, and no carpet. The entire tunnel was just excavated brown dirt, with walls and steps made out of that same dirt compressed down. Every step they made caused an echo, and made them feel in a place even more foriegn than they were with the last step. Locke was focused on just going downwards, but Tamin looked around her more.

"How do you think this place was constructed? Who do you think made it?" Tamin asked.

"I'm not sure, might've been Excadrill or someone. If this even is made by the guild," Locke replied.

"Fair enough. But we are officially trespassing right now, so we need to be careful."

"Exactly what I'm doing. But if you start to get scared and lonely, we probably are only one hollar away from getting company. That way you won't be scared, in darkness, and alone. You'll instead be scared, in darkness, and with a pissed off sylveon."

Tamin didn't respond to the humor, she only kept heading downwards beside the shinx.

After a minute of uncertain descending, they could finally see something at the end of it. A wooden wall with a reinforced door in its center.

Locke and Tamin checked each other's expressions to confirm they both saw the same thing. They then both sped up their pace on how quickly they went down, reaching the wooden wall and door at the bottom.

There was a bit of flat terrain before the wood wall. Once they both got down there, Locke slowly approached the door and grabbed the handle of it. As he tried to turn it, he found himself only able to rotate it a slight amount before it stopped itself, far from being able to open it.

After his failed attempts, Locke turned his head upwards to notice a keyhole in the door.

"Dang, it's locked." He said while still focusing on it.

"Give me one second then," Tamin said as she set her lighter on the closest staircase step and began digging through her bag again.

Locke began making plans of searching Sylveon's office for a key, or maybe trying to get into his bedroom to find the key, trying to figure out how to get through the door with his own methods.

While Locke was still working out his plans, Tamin pulled out some pins and a small knife from her bag. Putting the blade in one paw and the pins in the other, she approached the keyhole.

Locke took a step to the side to give Tamin room to get towards the door. She then stuck the knife into the bottom of the keyhole and a pin right above it. Clicking sounds could then be heard as she began moving the different pins in the keyhole, with her carefully listening for the right noises while also feeling the mechanisms inside being slid around.

"Wow. You're really dexterous with those," Locke commented while watching Tamin mess with the keyhole.

Tamin took the paw that was holding the knife off and showed it to Locke, spreading her fingers out as much as she could and moving them around.

"The webbing in between my fingers has been cut down," Tamin explained with the demonstration, "I can spread them out a lot more than normal."

The more Locke observed, the more unnatural it looked to him. Her separate fingers were moving around significantly further then they should have. The bottom of them and in between them looked like scarred flesh, it was still slightly red and had little fur grown there. He could tell what Tamin was referring to, and it truly looked painful to him.

"Huh. Didn't know that about you," Locke said while he continues to look at Tamin's paw.

"Well, you do now," Tamin said as she pulled her paw back and put it back on the knife, "Do me a favor and be quiet for a second while I figure this out."

Locke nodded up and down while Tamin turned all of her focus to the keyhole.

She continued to flick different pins in the keyhole up, counting how many there were and carefully listening for what sounds they made when moved at different heights.

After a minute of figuring things out and rearranging the pins, she got each part of the lock at the right position and twisted the knife. The lock turned smoothly with it. She then held the knife still while she reached with her other paw for the door handle. Now with the lock turned, the door handle now turned fully as Tamin rotated it. It was then only a simple push to get the door rearing open.

"Nailed it," Tamin quietly said to herself in pride as she saw the results of successfully picking the door lock.

"Nice! That's pretty impressive Tamin," Locke congratulated her.

"What can I say? I'm a rogue," the minccino replied while putting her tools back into their bag.

They pushed the door open and continued forward again, continuing the journey. The tunnel was flat now, and didn't descend into the earth any further. It only continued for a few meters until they were met with a ninety degree turn to the left. They took that, only to find another equally sharp turn to the left not much further. But continuing down that way, they saw the tunnel open up into a room much larger, with objects made of materials other than raw earth to break up the persistent brown color.

To their left was a large wall rack above another desk of some sort. The rack was ordained with hangers holding clothing and equipment.

Under closer examination, most of the things hung up appeared to be harnesses of different sizes and shapes, similar to the one Locke was being forced to wear. But unlike his, methods of restraint were much more apparent in many of them. Some reselmbed straight jackets more than harnesses.

They both looked at the collection together. Tamin herself went up to it and began climbing up the display by grabbing onto different hooks in order to get a closer look. While climbing, she noticed one of the harnesses displayed was of a familiar shape. Tamin then started hanging on the wall using only one of her arms while she used the other to apparel off of the rack and inspect them more closely. She uncovered one that looked to be sized for a zorua, another that seemed to be sized for an emolga and made out of rubber, several of different shapes that were made of a meterial that would absorb water easily and become heavy when soaked, two identical harnesses that seemed to fit a meowstic and were made out of some dark furs rather than cloth like the rest of them were, and more beyond that. It was almost a game in trying to figure out what each one was designed for, with every guild member having something that fit them. A quick count could also tell there were some extra ones on top of that.

"Just what the hell is this place?" Tamin asked, speaking mostly to herself but being loud enough for Locke to hear.

"Well, at least we know where he got this thing from," Locke said while he looked at the harness he was currently wearing. "At least this seems like a nice place to be."

"What? How is this possibly a good place?" Tamin questioned.

"Because there's a little something for everyone down here, no one can feel left out," Locke said with a smile.

"Oh, heheheh," Tamin tried to awkwardly laugh while she continued looking at the rack, looking for something that was her size and shape.

"I'm sure Sylveon must feel proud of himself for having such a thorough collection. It's like bottle caps," Locke continued.

"Let's just keep looking around," Tamin replied.

"Ah, alright."

They turned to look around more. Behind them and to the right of where they entered from, they saw a few loose crates and boxes. They weren't properly stored on shelves or efficiently stacked up, more so haphazardly put around with little care. They approached the stockpile and shined the light over it to scrutinize it further. There were water containers, bags of dry kibble that was quite a few steps down from the food the guild ate, unopened boxes of absorbent pads, cleaning supplies, cuffs, sleep seeds, non-perishable treats, and more. What made Tamin cringe the most to see was the dry kibble, it made her queasy to imagine trying to survive off of that for any long period of time.

"Hang on, is Sylveon preparing a doomsday shelter down here? Is that what the non-perishable supplies are about?" Tamin asked as they continued looking through the stockpile, "I think both the trapdoor we found and the door we found earlier were airtight, so maybe this is geared to stay dry in a floor?"

"Maybe, but that doesn't explain what all the restraint stuff is about," Locke responded.

After seeing what they could in the stockpile, they moved on again and continued down the room.

The first thing they saw when they traveled down was a thick plastic disposable bin, designed to be able to store biohazards. They didn't check its contents, so they kept walking forward down the intimidatingly long room, guided by their limited light.

A few meters deeper in, they found something new that lined both walls of the room and caught them off guard: a series of closed kennels. Some were made of metal, some were lined with rubber, all made to be quite durable.

They varied in sizes greatly, some being only a meter long at its farthest sides and others being three times that. How large the pokemon it was intended to be for could be determined by the door size to the kennel. Based on them, they all appeared to be twice as large as they would normally be, the cages having twice as much room inside. Some of them even looked like they were made by taking two identical kennels, cutting holes into them and attaching them together.

At the ceiling there were hooks, each an equal space of about ten feet away from one another. They seemed to be designed for holding lanterns, but they were all empty, implying a level of unfinishedness to the area.

"This... is literally a dungeon," Tamin spoke.

"Sylveon's been busy, assuming it was him who made this," Locke said, having to remind himself that this was all inside of the guildhouse. "Do you think Espeon even knows about this place?"

"Probably. But now that you mention it, I'm not quite sure."

Tamin walked closer to one of the kennels in the room, shining her light into it to see inside. Looking into it, she saw a water dispenser on the inside of the kennel along with a small tank for it on the outside of the kennel. The interior of the kennel was in two halves, one had cloth bedding and a hard pillow, the other had an absorbent pad lined on its bottom.

After they moved down the seemingly endless hallway for a bit longer, Tamin was able to hear a completely different noise echoing in the room. She listened more carefully, and froze when she recognized what the noise was: footsteps coming from behind. One after another they sounded off, each ever so slightly closer than the last. It made a chill go down her spine in fear.

"Is everything okay?" Locke asked Tamin, not being able to hear the sound himself yet.

Tamin turned her head to look back behind them. The sound of the footsteps getting louder as whoever it was quickly came closer. Locke was able to hear the sounds himself a few seconds after Tamin could.

Knowing she had to do something quick, Tamin closed the cap on her lighter to cut off the flame- and by extension- the light. The room became significantly dimmer (now only being illuminated by Locke) as Tamin ran hide behind one of the kennels.

Even though she didn't verbally communicate anything, Locke understood what was happening and ran to hide behind one of the kennels on the other side of the hallway. Both being quiet as they tried to remain hidden.

As they hid, Locke glowed brighter and produced more light. He tried his best to disable this light, but since shinx naturally glow when they sense danger, he was unable to deactivate it no matter how hard he tried. His natural instinct to have it on was not something he could manually overpower. With his biological light, it scared Tamin, for she worried that it would reveal her as well

While they were both kept hiding behind the kennels, the figure moved closer down the hall. It then began to speak to them.

"I know someone came down here, the doors wouldn't be open otherwise. You don't have anywhere to go, so you might as well just reveal yourselves now," Sylveon said.

Sylveon kept stepping closer to them, Locke still wasn't able to deactivate the light he was creating. So instead, he quickly came up with an idea on what to do.

Locke turned to Tamin. Knowing that she could hear better than Sylveon could, he quietly whispered three words to her.

"Wait. Right. There," Locke spoke as quietly as he could while pointing to Tamin's feet. The words being heard by Tamin but not by Sylveon.

Sylveon started getting close to them. Locke turned his head in the direction he was in, exhaled out and stepped out from behind the kennel, entering Sylveon's line of view as he walked out.

Tamin's eyes widened in surprise when she watched Locke walk out of hiding, but stayed silent nonetheless. She did nothing to call out to Locke as they would have revealed her existence.

"L-Locke?" Sylveon said in surprise when he saw Locke.

His walk was one of shame, he kept his head low when he walked towards Sylveon and tried not to make eye contact with him. It was a purely natural tactic of his to make a puppy face to seem innocent.

"You went down here?" Sylveon asked.

"Yeah…" Locke said, still holding his head low.

"Alright… I didn't think it would be you of all people, I'll admit," he said. "I mean, I know you're a troublemaker, but that's mostly from being overly aggressive and not poking around in places. Like, you don't really break rules when you've able to think of things rationally."

"I was just wanting to explore. Sorry."

"I can see that now."

"...So are you going to be punishing me now?" Locke asked, concerned.

"Well about that, it goes into some technicalities," Sylveon said.

"What do you mean?" Locke asked.

"Espeon doesn't want people learning about this room since it could scare newcomers off, and keeps it a secret. As a result, in the guild rulebook, he could not write a rule down that said 'guild members are not allowed into the dungeon below the basement without permission' as anyone reading the rulebook would then think 'wait, there's a dungeon below the basement?' so he actually couldn't make a rule for that in the same way he forbids trespassing in his bedrooms, or any bedroom you don't have permission in.

So as strange as it is, there is actually no rule in the guild I can enforce against you right now."

"Wait, really?" Locke asked.

"Yeah. I don't make the rules, I just enforce them. So you're actually fine right now," Sylveon explained. "But Espeon and Niot aren't going to be happy with you being down here, so it's best you come with me."

"Huh… alright."

The shinx began walking with Sylveon to exit the way they came, while Tamin remained hiding behind one of the kennels. Locke was feeling better, but still felt uneasy and kept his distance from Sylveon. It was unusual for him to see Sylveon so passive to him, which made him feel there was some trap at hand.

"So speaking of that, what exactly _is_ this place?"

"You remember that time we kept Hunter in that room for two days as punishment?" Sylveon asked in order to bring up an analogy.

"Yeah. " Locke replied, reminiscing a bit while he spoke. "Oh yeah, that was good."

"This place is for that, just on a significantly larger scale." Sylveon explained, "If someone did something so horrible that containment for several weeks or months is the only appropriate response, then this is where we keep them."

Locke thought for a moment on this, getting unnerved about the idea of anyone having to spend weeks living life in one of the kennels.

"Like...what?" Locke asked, wanting to make sure he'll never end up getting contained in the dungeon.

"Murder, maiming, destroying extremely expensive property and some other specific things. Whether it was successful or just attempted, is going to get you down here."

"Okay…" Locke said, faintly relieved.

"But I should say that while there is no rule against being here, there is a rule against sharing classified guild information. So don't be telling anyone else about this dungeon," he told him.

"Oh, okay. Understood," Locke said, feeling that his uneasiness was vindicated.

"Additionally, you did go through my office to get here, which is an officially recognized area that is off limits. As a result, you did officially trespass into that room, in a recognized violation of guild rules."

"Oh… Uh, what does that mean for me?" Locke said.

"Well let's think about it fully. I did make sure to investigate the cabinets and drawers, and they were still locked, indicating that you didn't snoop at any information you shouldn't have. I also don't use the office that much and spend most of my freetime in my bedroom, the same personal or sementimal connection there was with Espeon's room simply isn't there with the office.

Considering all those, it's a far less egregious situation. As a result, the proper protocol is just a slap on the wrist and a stern warning to not do that again."

"Ah, sweet. I guess history doesn't always repeat-"

Sylveon pulled one of his ribbon-like feelers back and quickly slapped it forward, hitting Locke square on one of his front legs with the side of it. The appendage was thin enough that it gave a sensation similar to a deep paper cut in how much it hurt his nerve ends.

"Ow!" Locke said.

"Never go into that room again," Sylveon said sternly.

"I didn't think you'd be literal," the shinx complained as he shook his leg around, shaking off the pain.

"That was your mistake then..." Sylveon replied.

Locke and Sylveon continued walking out. They went through the door leading to the staircase, with Sylveon using his feelers to push the door closed as they passed it.

Heading up the stairs was significantly less ominous to Locke when he was going up. This time around he was heading towards the safe guildhouse instead of away from it, and he knew what the second basement was now. Although not having Tamin by his side did make things a little more nervous for him, even if he would never admit it.

After a minute of walking, they reached the light of Sylveon's office again. Climbing into the normal basement, they got into the normal guildhouse once again

Locke took a good look around the room again, as it contrasted heavily from what he was just a little bit ago.

He went to push the trapdoor to the basement closed. Afterwards, he rotated the wooden board to be covering the door once again, followed by getting the carpet back over it. Locke knew Tamin was still down there, but held his tongue as he didn't want him to know she went down with him.

"By the way, now that you are here: I would have to ask to see you in Espeon's office right now," Sylveon said as he put the carpet back over to cover the trap door.

"A-Alright," Locke responded.

While that was happening, Tamin remained in the basement, listening for them.

She was able to hear the door to the staircase close. After she waited a minute for them to scale the staircase, she decided it was safe again.

Tamin had clenched her lighter while she sat in the pitch black. So it was easy for her to flip the lighter open and begin clicking it. Seeing the sparks it made before the flame was fully lit, it gave Tamin a sense of relief as it provided a level of illumination to the dungeon, enabling her to notice her surroundings again.

Tamin got up from her position and walked out from behind the kennel she had been hiding behind. In the open hall once again, she continued to explore and head deeper into the dungeon, passing by more kennels and the biohazard disposal cans. Some of the kennels were exceptionally large and resembled a jail cell, with its design having to dig into the wall to make room.

After some time, Tamin saw the light from the flame reach a stop, as it hit a wall at the end of the room. She went forward a bit more to reach it, seeing the room abruptly end with a flat wall of stone bricks. The wall had steel chains and manacles connected into it. Like the kennels and harnesses, they were of various sizes to account different Pokemon.

After inspecting the wall, Tamin figured there was nothing left to explore in this dungeon. So while she was still guided by a small light, she turned around to begin heading out of the place.

Once again she passed through the hall of inhumane kennels, still considering the horror it would be to have to live in one. Making her way out, this time more unnerving as she didn't have Locke by her side and she had less light.

The only sounds Tamin could hear was her own breathing and footsteps, and the only light Tamin could see could see from her lighter flame while she made her way back up the hallway, the small area of vision moving along with her. On her way back, passing by the rack of restraining suits and stockpile of boxes.

She was glad the door didn't get locked again, so she just continued past it to get to the staircase. Although it would have been too much of a problem as she could have just picked it open again.

Once she went back up the stairs alone, she got back to the trapdoor at the top. She tries to push it open, but finds herself unable to get it up.

Tamin tried again and again, exerting as much pressure as she could with both of her arms, all to no avail. Nothing she did could get it up. But by the sounds she could hear, she could tell that it was being pushed upwards slightly, only to be blocked by an object. She tried a few more times, but it did not nudge.

"Oh no..." Tamin said to herself as it dawned on her that she was trapped. "But he specifically checked to make sure it could be opened from the bottom, what the hell happened? How am I trapped? No no, don't panic, Tamin. Locke knows that I am down here. I just need to wait for him to free me.

Wait in this incredibly dark and morbid dungeon for him to free me…"

Meanwhile, while Tamin was on the wrong side of the trapdoor, a different story was happening in the main floor of the guild. Locke was brought back into Espeon's office by Sylveon. He blocked the door to the office and had Locke in front of him in this confrontation.

"Do you know why I brought you here?" Sylveon asked Locke.

"Uhh… No," Locke responded.

Sylveon stepped to the side and raised his feelers up. He then pointed to where the handle on the door used to be using his feelers.

"This was the doorknob you broke when you were last here, correct?" Sylveon asked.

"Oh, that," Locke said as he realized what was going on. "Sorry about that.

"Yeah, that's what I'm bringing you here for," he said, not speaking down to him but incredibly straightforward.

"But I was already grounded- forced to stay in this room for forever!" Locke responded.

"Well yeah, but Espeon has just asked that you pay for the doorknob to be replaced, since it was you who broke it." Sylveon calmly explained, "It's not expensive at all."

"Oh, okay. Well actually, uh, I can't do that," Locke said awkwardly.

"Why can't you?" Sylveon asked, "It's really not that much."

"I don't have none money right now," Locke explained.

"How do you not have any money? Have you been splurging it?"

"I've been giving all of my money to Crystal." Locke continued to explain, "She says she needs it."

"So you've just been handing everything you earn to her? What if you need to get something for yourself?"

"I ask her if she can get it for me. She says she's better at handling money then I am."

"Really?" Sylveon questioned with some concern in his tone.

"Yeah. I think you'll just have to ask her for it," Locke confirmed.

"Okay, this isn't in my authority to intervene, but I must say that doesn't sound like a healthy relationship, I really think you should try to keep your own money. Especially for situations like this," Sylveon said.

"Well, she's just the one that handles the money," Locke explained to justify.

"Sorry if this is pushing to far, but I have to ask: is there anything else that I should know about Crystal?" Sylveon asked, still sounding concerned. "This is the first time I've heard of her doing something like this."

"No, there's nothing wrong with us. Just mind your own business," he said, annoyed.

"My apologies then," Sylveon said.

"Sheesh."

"Just, the next time you go on a mission, please give a cut of what you got to Espeon for the repairs before giving it to Crystal, alright?" Sylveon asked.

"Understood," Locke said with a nod.

"Glad everything is arranged then. You may leave," Sylveon said as he stepped out of the way to make the way out be visible.

"Thanks," Locke told him without looking towards him, his head instead being forward to focus on leaving.

Running out of the office, he entered the questboard room and ready to travel to the closest staircase that went downstairs.

"_Okay, that didn't take too long,_" Locke thought to himself without speaking out loud, "_I just need to get downstairs, rotate that board to free Tamin and ask her what she saw-_"

"Locky!" Olivia's voice called out from behind, interrupting Locke's thoughts in the process.

"_Oh, please not now-_"

"We haven't talked in so long, how has it been?" Olivia asked in a misleading manner, interrupting Locke's thoughts again.

Locke turned his head to look at Olivia to look at her. For the most part she looked as she did the last time Locke was her, except for the fact that she was very suspiciously holding a handbook behind her back.

"Look, can you just wait one minute? There is something I really, really need to get done," Locke said, trying to be rational.

"Wait! There is just one thing I need to show you," Olivia responded, being demeaning like she absolutely needed to get something done, "I promise it will only take a moment."

Locke gave a sigh before he responded."What is it?" He said, recognizing that she would just be persistent if she rejected him so he might as well get done with it quickly.

Olivia suddenly struck a pose. It being the cutest thing she could make while still having one of her arms holding a handbook behind her back.

Her hand was making a peace symbol above her one open eye and she gave the cutest smile she could make, in tandem with one eye twinkling,With this pose a pink aura suddenly formed around Olivia with small hearts hovering all over her. Three large, floating red hearts were also summoned in front of her body. All three of those hearts then flew over towards the shinx.

"What in the world-" Locke said as he looked at the hearts approaching them, getting interrupted once more as they hit him.

Once the hearts touched Locke, they all dissipated and seemed to get absorbed into him. When this happened, Locke could feel some kind of an attack on his mind. He placed her paw on his head like he would do with a headache, but it did nothing to stop the invasion of his psyche as he became dominated by a foreign personality.

"Olive!" Locke cheerfully called out to Olivia, his eyes being replaced with pink hearts and the way he was acting totally shifting.

"Sweet. This actually worked," Olivia said as she pulled the handbook out from behind her back to look at the title. Revealing it to say: "How To Use Attract."

Locke approached and went up to Olivia while under the effect's of the attract.

"You look so adorable, Olive! You're my cutey-patooty!" He fawned over Olivia, completely infatuated with her while still being completely under the enchantment.

Olivia put the handbook down onto the ground. Right after, she spread out her arms and went to hug Locke around the neck. Locke responded by purring in pleasure and rubbing his head against Olivia back.

Olivia was as happy as she could have been in that moment, with Locke experiencing an artificial happiness of equal amounts in his attracted state. She gleefully pet Locke's back with her hand while she continued to hug him.

After a few seconds of hugging, Olivia released her grip and backed away a bit. Which was immediately followed by her going and pressing her lips against the lips of the attracted shinx to kiss him. She didn't stick her tongue into his mouth and it was only a smooch but they both enjoyed it immensely. Their tails wagging despite that not being something their species only do

Olivia then pulled herself away from Locke, leaving him in complete bliss from the kiss. She then started speaking to him.

"Now, would you like to make this more than just 'one moment'?" Olivia asked Locke, seeing him still very much under the influence of her the move. "There's something I'd

"Anything for you, my love…" Locke spoke in bliss.

"Perfect," Olivia said, "I just need you to follow me for a minute. I need you to be in my room to do it."

"Alrighty!"

Olivia walked out of the quest boardroom and into the guild foyer, having Locke follow her.

There were a few pokemon in the foyer already, minding their own business and walking through it. Olivia knew she had to avoid making too much suspicion and drawing too much attention, which was unfortunately difficult due to Locke and his heart eyes.

Trying to collect herself emotionally as much as she could, Olivia sprinted to the nearby staircase room. Locke was printed to do the same and run after Olivia.

Once in the staircase room, Olivia ran upstairs with Locke in her stride. While going up, she thought about how it was the same staircase she had poured lubricants on about a week ago to prevent Locke from going up the stairs, while now she was actually leading him up the stairs.

Once up, it was only a short distance to run across the balcony and get into Olivia's room. A distance they wasted no time in going. Locke once again, gleefully joining in with Olivia and entering her room after she opened the door for him.

The room was like a workshop. Various boards of both hard and soft woods were present, as well as saws, various carving tools, boxes upon boxes of sandpaper, wood carvings, other crafts, and more. The biggest thing on display in the room was a series of four crossbows, each on their own custom made racks with varying size, length, and tension. The only indication that this was a room someone lived in was a single bed shoved into the room's corner, a few cushioned chairs, and a rug in the middle of the room. Even the floor was coated in sawdust and strands of wood.

"I'm sorry I haven't cleaned in so long, that really is quite rude of me to invite you here such as it is," Olivia said to the shinx.

"It's fine!"

"Ah, alright. Now, let's get to business," the emolga said while reaching for his harness. "Let's deal with this terrible harness on you. We can't take it off, but I believe there's much we can improve on~"

The possessed shinx didn't speak anything back, instead, he tried to affectionately lick Olivia's face with her tongue.

She pulled him over to one drawer unit she had in her room, and pulled open one of its compartments to see a fractured thunderstone inside. She grabbed a pair of needle nose pliers from on top of the furniture piece, then picked up a single one of the miniscule shards with the tool.

"Hold still now, my little Locky. I need to be careful about this."

Holding Locke still with one paw and using the pliers with the other, she brought one of the shards near it and began studying the apparel closely, doing mathematics in her head to find certain ideal points.

"One difficulty with electricity is that it can easily spread out across the air, weakening as it dissipates. It is far more potent when it is harnessed into a small area," Olivia quietly spoke as she one by one embedded the shards into the harness. "But with these shards, they'll make it so the electricity you use is focused into these exact points before launching out. It'll throw off your accuracy at first, but once you get used to it, your attacks will be oh-so much better as it comes out concentrated into smaller areas. And precision is power.

Do keep in mind we're talking about upgrades more akin to 'plus twenty percent better' and not 'multiplied by two-point-five times better', but any explorer worth their weight will come to know that small improvements can make a world of a difference."

She continued on for a few minutes longer, strategically placing the shards around the harness to upgrade it. Twice during this process the effect of the Attract wore off and Locke began regaining his sensibility, but during his period of confusion on what just happened, Olivia quickly re-applied the move before his befuddlement turned to fight-or-flight.

While Locke was in Olivia's bedroom, vulnerable to whatever she wanted to do to him while under the effects of her Attract move, Tamin was still in the second basement.

Tamin still waited on the top of the staircase, just under the blocked off trapdoor. She waited sitting and holding her open lighter for illumination.

What was one minute became two, two became three, and three became more. Tamin continued to wait for the trapdoor to be opened up and for her to be freed as the minutes blended together. She had no idea what was going on with Locke, and her worry was culminating because of it.

Although mainly out of boredom, she wanted to become familiar with the place she increasingly worried she would spend days in: Tamin descended the staircase and went back into the dungeon, getting to the bottom and passing by the door again. At that point, it stopped feeling like a swift incursion, and more akin to a survival situation.

Shining her light once again, she looked back at the stockpile area, looking at the bags of dry kibble and tanks of certainly stale water.

"Well, I suppose I won't starve or die of thirst down here." Tamin said to herself, "But it's going to be a long time before I resort to that…"

Going away from the stockpile, she went to the hallway of kennels again. Out of curiosity, she went up to one of the kennels that was within her size category.

Tamin pulled the gate open on the kennel she went up to, finding that it had not been locked yet. The part right in front of the gate was the part with the bedding while the part deeper into the kennel was the one with the pad.

As Tamin didn't want to sleep inside any of the kennels in the fear of it being closed in on her (even if the odds of that happening were unrealistic as she was alone), she grabbed the bed in the kennel and began pulling it. To her delight, the bed came out and was set on the ground in front of the kennel.

"Well, I guess I have something to sleep in now," Tamin spoke to herself again.

Tamin then turned her head again to look back down the long, dark hallway once more.

"Now is there anything I can do to pass the time until Locke finally decides to show up?" She spoke again, wondering to herself as time seemed to pass by like the sand on an hourglass of molasses.

The minccino knew she could last for a while down there; she had lasted for longer periods in the darkness during the times she was grounded by her parents. But what ate away at her was being unsure how long she would be down there for, and the persistent reminders of twisted days in her past. She didn't feel free, she felt just as bound as she was before she ran away.

Meanwhile, Locke was still on the second floor of the guild, trapped in a different way.

Oliviahad finished embedding the thunderstone shards she wanted into Locke's harness, giving it a glitter when it shined against the light some way. Once that project was done, she took a sewing needle to write the message "modified by Olivia" into the nape of the harness, trying to ensure that the shinx wouldn't be blamed for altering it.

"Aaaaaannnnnd~ it's done!" Olivia declared.

"It looks great!" Locke said, still with hearts over his eyes.

"Dang right it- er, yes. It's great!" Olivia said, trying to correct herself to say nicier things. "I am so, oh-so pleased that you enjoy it, Locky!"

The emolga placed her paw on Locke's chin, tilted his head upwards, and leaned her own head in. She put her own lips to his, kissing him directly. The shinx's tail sprang up and straighted out in surprise, then fell down in pleasure.

"Alrighty, now let's move onto the next idea I had in planned- in mind. Either or!" Olivia said while pulling away from Locke. "If you don't mind, stay right there."

Olivia walked away from him again, and towards a stripped log of wood that was reserved. Along the way, she grabbed wood carving utensils.

"Keep put right there. Standing on all-fours and still. Now that you're here, I want to make a wooden carving of you," Olivia commanded while positioning herself and visualizing how to start the project. "I believe it should just be an hour,"

"Of course, Olive!" he said while obediently heeding her commands.

The emolga started the process, standing to the side of Locke and behind the log. She began with carving his chest due to having the most simple shape and allowing her to see where other things would come in relation to it. Her tongue remained slightly peeking out of the right side of her mouth as she focused on the lumber, putting in precision to get things exactly right.

One minute into the process, Locke blinked a few times as once more the effect of the move wore off and he once again regained his senses. But unlike the previous times, Olivia was too focused on her own work to notice what was happening with the shinx.

Locke was able to remember the previous times he snapped out of it, as well as where he was. He wanted to scream and act quickly, but he knew Olivia could cast it on him again.

While staying dead still, Locke moved his eyes but not his head to quickly peek at the emolga: she was still focused on her woodworking, not realizing what had happened to him. He then quickly looked the other way towards the room door: it had it's bolt slid in place to lock it, but nothing else was blocking it.

"Okay, what should I do? I have to get back to Tamin" Locke said while still in the position she commanded. "Should I attack her while her guard is down, she is part flying after all. No, that would be a bad idea. The guild would get on my back if I attacked another member. I probably can't talk my way out of this either."

Olivia kept working at the wood. Focused, but inevitably bound to peek at her art reference soon.

"_I know, I need to run to the door, get the bolt off, get out, slam it shut increase she uses that forsaken move again, and then run back down to Sylveon's office as fast as I can to get Tamin._" Locke said in his head. He repeated the plan a few more times, knowing that once he started he couldn't mess anything up. "_Run to the door, undo the pin, sprint down to the basement, get Tamin.. Run to the door, undo the pin, sprint down to the basement, get Tamin. Run to the door, undo the pin, sprint down to the basement, get Tamin. Run to the Tamin, undo the basement, sprint to the door, get the pin. Wait, what?_"

Inevitably, Olivia looked up from the wood again to check on Locke, and saw him. "Hmmm?" she sounded, able to tell something was off, but not immediately what it was.

"Oh crap, I've got to go now!"

Executing his plan, Locke made a sudden movement and practically leaped towards the sliding pin lock on the door. His paw missed his first attempt to grab the pin, but the second time he successfully hit the pin to get it out of place. Olivia began reacting at the time and tried to call out to him, but Locke was already opening the door by the time her shock wore off.

Locke began running as fast as he could, knowing the emolga was going to begin chase and that she was faster than him. Initially he planned to aim for the stairs, but on his way he passed by the fence that overlooked the mess hall on the first floor. As he heard the door to emolga's chamber being opened again, he instinctively shifted his plan to a faster route.

With full forward momentum, Locke leaped up into the air and over the fence at an angle. For a moment he was airborne, and his jump reached its peak. Gravity brought him down again, making him fall down into the first floor. He landed on one of the tables in the mess hall, landing on all of his feet and feeling pain surge in his paws.

"Locky! Wait!" Olivia shouted as she began to take flight, following the same route he did.

Without the time to fully go through the pain, Locke jumped off the table to the ground, and took off towards the closest staircase room downwards. He took as many quick turns as he could to lose track of her.

At the time that chaos was ensuing, Tamin was still waiting downstairs, wasting away.

Her lighter was running out of fuel, and it's flame was getting dim. She attempted to search for some kind of makeshift fuel to refill it, but there was no luck to scavenge such a resource in a place so barren.

Running out of light, Tamin decided on sitting at the top of the staircase and closing the lighter in an attempt to ration the little bit of fuel it had left. Making it so she was now in pitch black darkness in addition to everything else.

Tamin had nothing to look at and nothing to listen to. The only thing available to her was to think about her past memories, which when her past wasn't the most desirable thing to re-live, it didn't make her time much better. Her mind attempted to keep thinking of ways out, ways of getting through the trapdoor from below, but those thoughts on problem solving were contested by the thoughts of her dark past. The sensory deprivation was a blank canvas that allowed her memories to take up her consciousness instead.

On the other side of the trapdoor, Locke was desperate to make his way back to her, while Olivia was still in pursuit. He took an unnecessarily high amount of turns to make anyone attempting to follow him would get lost. Sure enough, before Olivia could even realize what he was doing, she found herself lost in the middle of the basement and unsure of where Locke had gone. Without even knowing which way was North, she just stopped to think. "Welp, it was fun while it lasted…" Olivia spoke to no one except herself.

Finally free of the emolga, Locke pathfinded his way back to Sylveon's office. It took a good minute, but relying on his instincts to guide the way, he found the door again. Not even bothering to check that the room was empty first, Locke delved into it once more. Grabbing the corner of the carpet and lifting it up to unveil the hatch again.

After spending an unhealthy amount of time alone in the darkness, Tamin finally heard the sounds of footsteps above her. She snapped back to reality from whatever fantasy her mind had wandered to and started standing up.

"Hello!" Tamin called out through the trapdoor, anxious to be freed, "Can anyone hear me!"

Tamin knocked on the trapdoor to try and create more noise and indicate that she was down there. Sure enough, she heard the wooden board be shiften and the light finally bleed through the door's crevice again. She was blinded by the light at first due to her eyes being in pitch black darkness for over an hour, but once her eyes acquainted again, she saw the door lifted upwards to reveal Locke.

"I am so sorry this took so long," Locke said as he held the trap door upwards, "let's just say a lot happened to me that prevented me from coming back."

Tamin raised her paws up to help Locke lift the trapdoor upwards further as she stepped out. Once Tamin was out and they closed the door behind them.

Tamin turned her focus to Locke. She felt slightly overwhelmed with emotions from what she had just gone through, her rather weak mental fortitude having largely been expended.

With little warning, Tamin collapsed onto Locke, hugging him around the neck. Locke was caught off guard. And after he had gone through hours of getting hugged by Olivia, Locke wasn't exactly about getting snuggled with again, but he knew that Tamin was well meaning.

He let Tamin continue hugging him intently while she breathed heavily, trying to relieve herself of what all had happened.

"I'm so, so sorry for leaving you down there, and for this whole idea" Locke said again into Tamin's ear. "I'll tell you the full story later: But for now, we should just get out of this room."

Tamin took her arms off of Locke and nodded to him, which was followed by Locke pulling the carpet back and them both heading out.

Not too long later, the meal bell rang to indicate it was lunch time. Locke and Tamin sat together and away from Olivia, hoping to be able to simply blow the rest of the day off and do nothing. Because suddenly, doing nothing and being risk free sounded quite appealing to the two. Dewott offered if Locke wanted to try to do another eating competition and Scampi asked Tamin if anything was wrong, but they just briefly brushed them off.

Once Locke was done, he began walking back to his room, only to be stopped by words that would make most grimace on the inside.

"Hey Locke, there's something I need to talk to you about. Can you see me in my office for a minute?" Espeon asked.

His mood did not improve his reaction to it. He whipped his head around to look at the guildmaster. "What is it?" Locke said, annoyance riddling his voice.

"Don't worry, you're not in any trouble. But there is a matter I need to talk to you about," Espeon said as an attempt to hearten him.

"What is it then?" Locke asked.

"Matters that should be kept private. So I'd really prefer to talk in the office," he said.

"Um, okay," the shinx said, more perplexed than annoyed.

Espeon led the way to the office, and Locke followed him. Even though he had bad experiences in that room before, his instincts didn't give him any bad premonitions for what was to come. He actually felt safe, but unsure. Once the two were inside, Espeon used Psychic to push the door closed.

"Are you comfortable?" Espeon inquired.

"Yeah yeah, I'm aight. What did you want to talk to me about?" Locke said, giving a squint.

"I talked with Sylveon earlier, and he told me that Crystal was taking all of your earnings. Is this true?" the guildmaster asked.

"Well yeah. Why are you talking to me about this?"

"This is potentially a serious situation, so as a guildmaster, I found it to be my duty to investigate," he explained. "Is absolutely everything okay between you and Crystal?"

"Of course. She's my girlfriend," Locke said, still not sure the purpose of this meeting.

"So your money you earn is going towards her?"

"Yes?"

"Do you relinquish your money willingly? Do you feel intimidated to doing that in any way?"

"What does that even mean?"

"'Relinquish' means 'give'."

"Oh. And yeah, I do so willingly. Why?"

"I just am wanting to make sure that nothing bad is going on here."

"Nothing is. I already told you, she's my girlfriend," Locke said, his voice getting assertive as though he was defending himself and others from fraudulent claims.

"Well her being your girlfriend is sort of the concern here."

"Hmm?"

"Look, I'll be perfectly blunt. Sylveon told me that it sounded like financial abuse, and based on the story he told me, it sounded like abuse to me as well. So that's what I wanted to ask you about," Espeon said, trying to be straight forward to the shinx. "Please don't be so defensive, I'm trying to help you here, not vilify you. Just, are you sure that everything is alright?"

"Oh… um… yeah. I'm sure. I'm happy with her, and she handles my money well."

"Now are you absolutely, positively sure about that?" Espeon asked further. "If there's anything you feel is even slightly off, please tell me. I can investigate this further and intervene if necessary. I just need your word."

The last few words Espeon said lingered in Locke's mind, and made him stop to contemplate them more. Previously he'd seen the guildmaster as a frustrating symbol of authority and one that was either complicit in him being locked into a harness, or ordered him to be put into it. He saw him as someone he struggled against, especially as he remembered the espeon forcing him asleep by using Hypnosis. Nevertheless, Espeon now seemed to be doing the opposite, he seemed to earnestly be seeking for his word and permission, putting some authority on Locke. For a second he stuck on this idea, feeling a different kind of power then what he usually possesses and exerts, the power over others. Moreover, his mine visualized images of Crystal in the same sort of harness that he was forced to be- and the terrible look on her face in that- if he did tip Espeon off.

"It's okay. She's my friend, and I have lots of great experiences with her in the past," Locke said, his desire to test if he could actually shut him down, but also being genuine."

"...Well if that's how you truly, feel, I will not argue with you," Espeon said. "That's all, you can head off now."

Locke gave a deep exhale in relief, appreciative that _now_ the chaos was finally over.

"Thanks," the shinx said as he walked towards the door out. But before fulling getting out, he got another idea.

"Oh, while I'm here, there is something I'd like to tell you," Locke told Espeon.

"Yes?"

"Just some things that Olivia did today that I think you should know about..."

**End of chapter 19.**


	22. A Cryptic Message

Between the cold storms and oppressive weather that was the rule for winter, there were some pockets of clear skies and tolerable temperatures that served as the exceptions. The snow made walks and journeys hard to go on without needing to trudge through it, and with the right wear it was possible to ignore the cold while out on a mission.

It was under these conditions that Locke, Tamin, Dewott, and Froslass were embarked on a quest. They walked through a snowy meadow that was northeast of the guildhouse, not far from their destination. They were in a normal environment, not some uncanny mystery dungeon. It was just the leafless trees to look between. It was just a little bit of piano music away from being the serene landscape like those depicted in idealized Christmas towns. But without those tunes, it felt empty. Being empty of threats was ideal, being empty of sounds was negligible, but being empty of their objective was bad.

"When did it last snow over here? Does anyone know?" Tamin asked as she stepped through the meadow and turned her head towards her companions, straying her eyes away from the irritating glare of sunlight reflecting off of snow.

"Why?" Locke asked, not far away and sticking close to Dewott.

"Well we came here to find some lost wagon, so I was thinking that if it snowed just before it was lost then maybe there's some wagon tracks in the snow we could follow," Tamin explained herself.

"I believe this particular area hasn't seen anymore come down in a few days," Froslass answered Tamin. "I suppose it's possible, but since the wagon was lost very recently and the snow is hard, I wouldn't count on it."

"Mmm. Alright," Tamin replied, turning her eyes back to look around again. "Still odd that we'd be paid so much to find some random wagon that got lost in a non-hostile place."

"It's from a noble house, so it's 'bout what I'd 'pect from them," Dewott explained, hand expressions going everywhere. "I've heard a lot about them from Mienfoo. 'Priceless' means something a lot more to them when they do have the poké to pay just 'bout any price you can think of.

I'm guessing there was something sentimental or secretive in there that they wanted to be found in a rush- be found as fast as possible so none would take it. Hence the immediate mission and high funding."

"Wait, secretive, you say?" Tamin asked, interest suddenly sparking.

"Yeah. I'm sure they've got a bunch of confidenti-whatever stuff. If they had anything like that was on the wagon they'd be rushin' to have it retrieved."

"Alright. Was this the same house that Mienfoo's in? House Splendor, I think," Tamin asked back.

"I actually don't remember that being labelled on the quest," Dewott said.

"Yeah, I don't remember that being labeled either," Froslass added on. "Are you sure they're our clients?"

"Yee. I'm pretty familiar with them, so I am pretty sure it was one of them," Dewott explained. "They might've gotten someone else affiliated to make the request, maybe for anonymity, I don't know."

"More of just a gut instinct then?" Locke asked.

"Sure," Dewott replied.

"Alright. Hmm…" Tamin trailed off along with her thoughts. The same part of her that was interested in eavesdropping on others was not curious about what the wagon that their clients didn't want getting into the wrong hands. "Just what secrets does a noble have to hide? What's gossip with them like?" Tamin pondered. It gave a new kind of motivation that ignited with her.

Having not spoken for a moment, Locke was thinking of his own ways to interject in the conversation.

"That reminds me, how have you been while Mienfoo has been away for like two weeks?" Locke asked Dewott.

"Eh, it's alright. I miss her, but I'm not too shabby alone," the water type answered.

"Aye, that's good to hear," Locke said, forming a smile. "So, does that make me your next in line to do some competitions with?"

"Ha, sure. If we find something we can do it together," Dewott said. "Maybe a snowball fight when the snow is in a better condition."

"Nah, I don't think that'd be too even for me. I am a quadruped and all and can't really throw balls well," Locke answered him. "Though then again, being closer to the ground does mean it won't take as long before I get completely buried by snowballs, so I won't be losing for terribly long."

"Oh sorry, I didn't really think about that," Dewott said

"Nah man, it's alright."

"Sorry. If you can think of something else, you can tell me. But right now, I think my mind's a little more focused on Mienfoo," Dewott continued to talk. "My biggest worry is that she's going to come back evolved and I won't be able to see that."

"No, that just means that you've got to evolve yourself in the time she's gone," Locke said, still in a joking way. "That'll be a power move right there."

"Haha. Well I certainly don't plan on evolving since it'd make life harder to be that large and not be as dexterous with my paws when I'm on all-fours, but you are right, that would be a real power move."

"Shouldn't we focus on the mission, guys?" Froslass asked.

"Hey, I could certainly give you a few pointers on how to move 'round on all-fours. Plus crippling yourself for the sake of the competition will just make it much that much more of a power move."

"I do really appreciate the advice, but I think there are better options, so I'll stick to my gut."

"I'll let ya do that then. Cuz as we both know, sticking to my gut instincts certainly gave me a world of wonders and some free apparel."

"If I really want to, I have some other options for power moves at my disposal."

"Do tell."

"I could just make a food sin directly in front of her when she comes back and eat it. Whole."

"Oooooh~, I like the way you're going with that," Locke said.

"Okay, I'm afraid to ask this, but what exactly is a 'food sin'?" Tamin interjected.

Both Dewott and Locke turned their heads to look at the minccino, their eyes showing fields of wonder within them, like kids introducing a new friend to their favorite game.

"Oh, it's quite simple! You just grab some bowls along with some objects to stir with, and then raid the pantry for a bunch of random things that are about to expire- be they ketchup, lettuce, milk, mayonnaise, beans, or whatever else- then you start combining all of them together and keep going until you make Azelf regret giving pokemon free will. Then you've created a lovely, lovely food sin."

"Ah! But it's not always as simple as a blender challenge," Dewott corrected, extending one finger to hold it upwards. "There's a real art to committin' a truly vile food sin. You have to really learn some confectionary skills to take somefins that specifically _don't_ go together, and put em' together as if it were an actual dish! Like baked bean cereal with sum sprinkles added on top!"

"Ya!" Locke chimed in.

"Wh-why in Arceus' name would you learn cooking just to do that?" Tamin said is disgusted bewilderment. "Why would you learn _anything_ to do that? Just, why?"

"We mentioned earlier: it's a power move," Dewott stated, still grinning.

"Listen, you can be having your own little cooking competition in the guild's kitchen, and that's all fine as well. But the moment Dewott steps in and joins, you're no longer doing that cooking competition. You're playing Dewott's game. And things get real interesting, real quick when you're playing Dewott's game."

"Yep-yep!"

"I don't think anyone wins 'Dewott's game'. That just sounds like something where everyone loses. Especially when you eat one of those… confectionary devilries," Tamin said.

"Well," Locke said, "I'm not going to argue with you on that, but it's fun all the same."

The shinx and the dewott continued to share a hearty laugh with each other, while Tamin turned back to look at Froslass. The ice type pokemon was just there, looking.

"Are you going to say anything?" Tamin asked her.

"No, I'm just observing at this point," Froslass said, smiling weakly. In her mind, she wished she had some popcorn to chew on while she watched the others talk.

The minccino just rolled her eyes away from them and continued looking around for the wagon. The others still had the occasional giggle, but came along nonetheless to continue the objective.

It took a fair bit more wandering around the meadow to search. At several times, they needed to call out to Locke to stop him from wandering off from the group. The search picked up when they saw the sight of random small objects strewn about atop the hard snow. Further investigation revealed that the items were the exact sort one would expect to see be transported long distances with a wagon. From that discovery, all they needed to do was to attempt to follow the loose trail of lost items, picking up what they could along the way.

The trail led them to a tree that had the wagon crashed into it. A few wheels were lost, and the wagon's cover had collapsed in on itself. A few pokemon were already picking at its contents, looking for any easy claims or possibly food. The team didn't bother even checking if these were feral pokemon from dungeons or society's common thieves looting what they could, they scared them away with some shouting and launching off a flare to disorient them but not damage the contents.

The pokemon were all shooed away without a drop of blood being spilled, and in their absence, the four guild pokemon were left to see the wagon themselves.

"So that's it then?" Locke asked. "Mission's over, just carry this back?"

"Unless there's also some noble tea party out here that we're supposed to attend and they didn't tell us about, this is it," Froslass said, dripping with sarcasm.

"Just a little disappointing for me, I guess. I mean, we did really not get into any fighting," Locke expressed.

"Yeah, I'm with you. This does feel pretty off," Dewott added.

"I'll always take a chance to avoid fighting if I can, so I'd say this mission is pretty ideal," Tamin added as they all stood side-by-side facing the wagon.

"But don't you need to fight to get experience with it?" Froslass asked Tamin.

"Whatever," she dismissed. "Let's just continue the mission."

The four all got closer, surrounding it in a semi-circle to better inspect it.

"See if you can find all of the wheels to this thing. I don't want to be lifting this thing back without those," Dewott commanded.

"Yes. Be sure to get all of the things that fell off back on as well," Froslass said. Her tone of voice made it completely ambiguous if she was being sarcastic or not.

The four all began gathering the contents together and making haphazard repair attempts. All four of the wheels were found, so they used makeshift materials to stick it back onto the wagon's corners and get everything back together. Items were shifted in a wide area around the wagon, making the objective feel more akin to a chore day than a typical high-action mission when they picked things up.

During the pick up process, Tamin noticed a letter that was lodged into the snow. She barely managed to notice it among the white snow, and this item stood out to her as everything else there seemed like furniture, decorations, or heirlooms. So she reached down to grab it.

Picking it up, Tamin noticed more things that were off about the letter. It had a black wax seal of a symbol she had never seen before, and it had been partially cut open by something in the wagon when the crash had happened. This sparked her curiosity even more.

The minccino expanded the opening with her paw so she could look inside. There, she saw a paper marked with countless bizarre symbols. They weren't something she could read, nor even recognize. They didn't look like any language at all, it looked like a cipher. Tamin blinked a few times and brought it closer to her eyes, but that just confirmed what she was seeing. Rows and rows of some unknown cryptogram inside.

"Hey, Tamin, what do you have right there?" Froslass suddenly questioned.

Mentally, Tamin was shocked. Part of her blood turned cold and a fuzzy surge came to her head from nervousness. But it was just that, mentally; she didn't let those feelings reach her physical appearance. In fact, she decided to play off of that. She made an exaggerated "ah!" sound and fell backwards onto her butt in the opposite direction Froslass was. But coming out of her mouth, it sounded genine.

"Are you alright?" Froslass asked.

"Yeah, sorry. You just surprised me there," Tamin said, adding some paw gestures to make herself seem more genuine. "Sorry, I was just looking around for more things to put onto the wagon."

"Mhm. What was that letter you were looking at?"

"What?"

"I saw you opening and peering into a letter, and that's why I called out to you."

"Huh? I don't get what you're talking about. I didn't have anything, I was looking around for something."

"What? I could have sworn I saw that."

"Do you think you might just be seeing things?" Tamin said, adding on a bit of a shrug.

"Show me your paws," Froslass commanded.

"Huh?"

"Just show me what you have in your paws, I want to make sure."

Tamin raised both of her paws up, holding her arms parallel to each other. Both had nothing in them.

"Uh, get up," Froslass said. Confusion taking dominance over the judgemental voice she had.

The minccino got back off of her butt and onto her feet again, and nothing was where she was sitting. Moreover, she reached into pockets that were on her coat and inverted them, pulling the fabric out to show nothing was inside of them.

"Huh…" Froslass said while looking. "I'm sorry, I guess I was just seeing things."

"Yeah… I kinda think you were," Tamin replied, still showing her paws.

"I'm sorry about that, I guess my mind was somewhere else."

"Don't beat yourself up, we all make mistakes sometimes. Let's just get back to getting the wagon together," Tamin said.

"Right."

Froslass floated away, and Tamin continued to pick up other things. A moment after the ice type had gone to look elsewhere, Tamin raised her paw to the back of her neck and felt. She touched the letter as she did so, confirming it was still pressed between the collar of her coat and her back, just as she had quickly snuck it when she forced herself to tumble to the ground in fake startling.

It wasn't any exorbitant period of time to gather everything on the wagon again and make repair attempts. With everything together again, they began to take it back to the town the guildhouse was in, as that was where the clients waited at.

Transporting the wagon was more tedious than difficult. They had to hold up some corners of it while pushing and pulling it, a hard task when they weren't the largest of pokemon. Dewott was the one doing most of the work, and they had to take a break every few minutes to let him regain arm strength.

As they traveled back, Tamin occasionally checked to make sure the letter was still being held at her back and hadn't slipped out. During one of the breaks, Tamin managed to get to a side of the wagon where none of them had a line of sight on her, where she snagged the letter, folded it twice neatly, and stored it in a coat pocket instead. There, it was far safer. Her mind remained on what the symbols she saw were across the full way back. But others were more attentive to ones besides themselves.

"So where was this wagon initially heading?" Locke asked the group.

"I don't think it had just one stop," Dewott answered, "It was supposed to stop and drop off some stuff at a couple different places. More efficient than sending a different wagon for each location."

Tamin heard this, and decided to contribute.

"Was the guildhouse supposed to be one of its stops to drop some stuff off at?" Tamin interjected with her own question.

"Yeah. Pretty sure," Dewott said, "So I suppose we are really helping the wagon continue its original route."

"Okay." Tamin spoke, ending the conversation.

Tamin got more information out of that short exchange than the others had realized. She knew it absolutely had to be for one of the guild members.

After thinking about it, Tamin figured that the wagon must have been intended to stop at the guild, having someone to come and look through it for the letter, take it and then read it. That certain someone must've known how to read whatever code it was in, among whatever else the wagon was supposed to drop off at the guild.

With that figured out, the question in Tamin's head shifted to be about who the letter was designated for.

_"Was it for Espeon?"_ Tamin thought to herself, _"That would make sense since he is the guildmaster and would probably be the first to look through the wagon. But at the same time, I never saw anything even resembling those symbols when I was in his bedroom and office a few weeks back. So maybe it wasn't him._

_What if it was Niot? He's smart and would be one to know some kind of secret code, and he would also be one to check the wagon quickly. Although then again, a lot of the stuff in Espeon's office was written by him, and there still isn't any of that code in there. Hmm… Hunter did inspect the office a lot more than me and see things I didn't, so I could try asking him if he saw anything like this, I'll just have to make sure Locke doesn't find out about me talking to him..._

_Enough of this. If i'm going to get to the bottom of this, I'll have to figure out what that letter means myself. If I hand it off to anyone else, then I will never get to learn what it says."_

Tamin reassured herself that she would get to the bottom of the strange letter in one way or another. The entire group continued to travel back to the guildhouse.

The wagon was now secured, Locke, Tamin, Dewott and Froslass all entered the guildhouse once again. All of them are getting to feel the warmth offered by the building that they had missed for several hours now.

Several guild members were in the foyer to notice them, including Espeon; implying that he wasn't working and was instead waiting for their return.

"Oh, uh, welcome back to the guild!" Espeon said to them once he was them enter, starting with stuttering in surprise before shifting to enthusiasm.

The arriving guild members did not match his energy, only walking forward to get deeper into the guildhouse. They all wanted their money from the mission, but more so wanted to have their warmth and rest. After gathering their share of the geneous mission reward amount, they talked again.

"So Locke, anyfin else you wanna t'day?" Dewott asked.

"Dunno, can't not think of much right now?" the shinx replied.

"You mean 'can't'?"

"Right," Locke gave a small and short nod, more like a head shake than anything else.

"Always on the move, you two. Might as well push the entire guildhouse while you're at it," Frosslass didn't stray from her usual brand of sarcasm as she said that.

"As chilly as it is outside, I'd rather chill out inside. Even if you think that's uncool," Tamin said, trying to interlace in some puns to fit in and reduce any suspicions that were potentially on her.

"The snow is in a pretty good shape to do a snowball fight, but I ain't sure that'd be very fair for you," Dewott suggested.

"Eh, yeah, I don't think that'd be very great for me. What about something like digging tunnels?" Locke said.

"Mmm. I'll think 'bout that," Dewott said.

"Aye, alright. By the way, I don't think you ever told me about how that last snowball fight you did with Mienfoo went before she went away."

"Oh, lemme tell you that it went wonderfully. I think she underestimated how quickly I could cobble a snowball togeth'r by scooping up the snow with my scalchops," Dewott recited his story with a wide smile. "She must've been overconfident with how much the cold would have affected me 'cause I'm a water type. I could tell she was trying some tricks to like out agility me."

"Aye, I can imagine that. So you won quite easily?"

"Half of her body was buried in snow by the time we were done," Dewott cackled.

"Nice! Seems you ended things off quite well," Locke said.

"Yup! Now I just need to make sure she doesn't close my lead when she evolves and comes back."

"Good luck,"

"Thanks," Dewott turned to look at the minccino. "Hey Tamin, you're a biped and have got a fair bit of dexterity from that I can tell, maybe we could do a snowball fight sometime?"

"Snow? More like s-_no_-w," the minccino said as she walked off.

Dewott and Locke talked for a bit longer, but Tamin had already left the scene behind. Froslass stalked back to her room to look over magazines, and Tamin returned to her abode as well. She didn't put her coat back to the guild's shared supplies, as she knew she needed it to effectively smuggle the letter to her room, and her scarf wasn't large enough to hide it. The coat wasn't technically hers, but Tamin knew that she could pass it off as a simple accident caused by forgetting if she was called out on having the coat, whereas explaining the letter would be far harder.

She entered her room, shut the door behind her, and made double sure to lock it. The minccino walked over to a small table she had and withdrew the letter from the coat pocket. Elegantly unfolding it and patting it to reduce how much it was bent, she finally got it fully open.

The paper inside was as she remembered it, and the envelope was blank aside from the black wax seal. Rows upon rows of strange symbols stared back at her, her eyes wandered around it, unable to focus on any one part as she couldn't find any singular character she could identify.

She looked frustrated for a second, but persisted in attempting to study it. It took a few moments, but she got an idea on how to keep moving forward by gaining information.

Even if she couldn't gleam information from the characters themselves, she could look at the places they were and their formatting. The letter obeyed proper formatting with paragraphs and indents; it even appeared to have proper punctuation as well. It had a few paragraphs, with the first and last being the shortest ones and the second-to-last being the longest. The punctuation also told their own story as she counted four semicolons across it and other uncommon punctuation, indiditive of formal writing to form a high reading level.

The more she studied the formatting of it, the more it seemed familiar to her and gave off an aura of deja vu. Squinting closer and thinking harder about it, she then got a realization;

_"This is formatted like our mission requests are,"_ Tamin thought.

That discovery sparked up her interest even further. This was a real mystery to her, even more than just a simple thing to break up the monotony of winter.

"Oh I've just got to decode this and figure out what this says now. Just what kinds of things would have to be hidden under a code like this? This isn't like the eavesdropping I do back at this guild, this is potentially some pretty serious stuff. Potentially on a far grander scope then any whisper I've heard." she thought to herself, starting to get excited. "Sure, cryptology isn't one of my skills. But I could sure make it one."

Tamin gathered together papers and writing utensils, preparing for a long session to solve this. Her coat was tossed to the side of the room, and she started writing down whatever notes she could think of.

The first thing the minccino did was right down a list of every unique character on the paper, and counted how many times they appeared. She then took note of identical words and common strings of characters. She copied the letter several times so she could get a version she could circle characters on and add notes without damaging the original. Every idea she had got written down on paper, even before she fully thought it through.

Going after the lead that this resembled a mission request, Tamin left her room for a few minutes to dig through trashes and archives for completed mission papers to use as a reference. It was just a short excursion- however- as she quickly returned to her room to continue the research, regardless of how fruitful it was or was not.

This lead of comparing it to a letter she could actually read gave her some decent knowledge. She had a good guess on what certain words at the beginning or end of sections were by those being what appeared on the normal papers. This served as an exceptionally strong lead, even if based on assumptions, as now she could make educated guesses on what specific characters meant and try those out for other places they appeared in it.

For hours she remained in her abode, stretching her mental capabilities to make notes and attempt trial and error. Time pasesd by like a rushing river outside of Tamin's notice. Minute after minute and hour after hour, Tamin worked.

She discovered that it was more complex than a simple cipher of each letter being swapped out with a different letter. Some characters would have to have been sounds normally produced by several letters put together. This was rather demoralizing to learn, but she persisted on nonetheless.

Eventually, a sound rang through the entire guildhouse and made its way through Tamin's door to reach her ears. It was the ring-a-ding of a brass bell, echoing through the many different rooms. The ring pulled her focus away from her work and made her look in the direction of her chamber door.

"The meal bell? It can't be supper already, can it?" Tamin thought to herself. "Wow, have I really been working at this for that long? I could have sworn it's been less than an hour… huh."

Tamin set her utensils down, then looked at her room's window. She had her curtains up, but carefully examining them, she could tell that no daylight was seeping in anymore, confirming her suspicions on what the actual time was. The minccino then went over to her chamber door and left through that. With her sense of time destroyed, she stumbled towards the mess hall.

While she was in that room physically, she was not mentally. Her mind stirred around in her cranium trying to both figure out how time had slipped by, and what the letter was for or said. She operated automatically with how she was grabbing food and nibbling at it, her actual energy being devoted to her internal thoughts. The mess hall was bustling with chatter, far more than what the typical winter night hosted, but she didn't notice.

After eating, it was right back to her room and to racking her brain in trying to solve the mysteries of the letter.

She spent another hour-and-a-half working at it on her own, but she didn't know that herself. More brute-forcing, unsubstantiated theories, having to backtrack, and having her penmanship quality gradually deteriorate overtime. By the end of it, she was mentally tapped. Paws in her hair, she held up her head with her eyes still and staring downwards at the page as if she expected the symbols to suddenly rearrange themselves in a fashion that made sense. Tamin knew this approach wasn't working anymore. She had to find a new angle to come at it.

"Isn't there a library downstairs?" Tamin thought to herself, "Maybe there are some books on cryptology there that I could use. Yeah… think I'll try that."

She picked up the letter and a few notes, carefully put them into a bag, and left her room with them. She knew there was a risk to being caught with them, but at that point she had a harder time caring. She didn't take the envelope with her, so she was banking on the thought that if she was seen with it, whoever saw it would have no idea what it was and let her keep it.

The basement was annoying to Tamin as it always was, for the same reasons of the inconsistent design. She had to stay keen to avoid getting lost, but found her way to the guild's library. It was a rectangular room, one wall with an entrance and a few windows in, and three walls of bookshelves, complete with two short wooden tables. It was empty, and perfect for study. Tamin partially regretted not coming there sooner, but she didn't let those thoughts bother her too much as there was no way to change the past.

She set her supplies down on one of the tables and began scanning the bookshelves for ones that would be of service to her. But instead, she made the discovery that the books were not sorted in the proper way. This discovery spiraled into her spending over a half hour to just move the books around and be figuring out where everything belonged, ignoring the letter as she worked on that.

Once the books were finally to her liking, she finally grabbed a book about deciphering unknown texts that she had noticed while doing her rearranging.

Tamin went over to sit back down with the letter to start working on it again. Once again, she absolutely immersed herself in the work.

The outside world closed off while she put all of her mind into the letter. It wasn't the passage of time, body's needs, or her relationships that she cared for, she cared for nothing except solving the mystery during that time.

Minute after minute, hour after hour. Time passed on again without Tamin's notice. This time there wasn't the meal bell to intrude on her work.

Locke checked up Tamin at one point to see how she was doing. Tamin largely brushed the meeting off and kept focusing on the letter, ignoring the shinx. After a minute of failed communications, Locke simply left saying, "I'm going to bed," and Tamin had forgotten about him minutes later.

Even if there were points where Tamin was rubbing her fingers through her head fur in frustration, she still pushed forward and was wholly determined on solving what the cryptic message said.

Eventually, another pokemon came into the library to speak to Tamin. This one being something she did not expect and something that caught her attention more.

"Shouldn't you be in bed by now?" the voice said to Tamin.

The minccino looked up from the pile of papers and rotated herself. She gazed back at the library's entrance, and saw a black blotch standing at the intersect between the two rooms. Her pupils refocused at a delayed speed, and the blotch became clearer. It was Umbreon.

"Wh-what time is it?" Tamin said. The words came out sounding like someone who was just coming out of a nap or even sleep talking; far different from how she normally sounded. It wasn't until Tamin had heard herself that she realized just how tired her body was.

"Twelve-forty," Umbreon answered.

"Oh, that late?" Tamin asked, further clicking in her head just how much time she had spent on that letter.

"Yes. All the nocturnal pokemon are awake, and I think you're the only diurnal awake right now."

"Is there a curfew I have to follow? Sorry, I didn't know," Tamin began saying, picking up her papers again.

"Oh, no no. I was just wanting to make sure you were alright," Umbreon awkwardly reassured, not sure where the idea of a curfew came from. "You're not the first pokemon that has stayed up for longer than they knew, either. Don't worry."

"Oh, okay… would it be alright if I kept working at this then?" Tamin said to her, shifting her torso but keeping her head facing towards Umbreon. "It's something personal, and I think I'm not far from completing it."

"If that's what you want, that's fine. We are having lunch in twenty minutes, so you're welcome to join us for that if you want to," Umbreon told Tamin, some reassurance could be found in her tone.

"Lunch?"

"Well yeah, we have lunch at one-o-clock. I guess in your case that would be… well, I don't think there's a name for what that meal would be for you."

"Right, right. Nocturnal stuff, forgot about that."

"Mhm. The guild technically hosts four meals every day," she explained. "Anything else you have questions about? Anything you need?"

"Just some time alone," Tamin said, shifting her head back to the papers as well.

"Can do," Umbreon said as she turned away.

Tamin attempted to get back to testing things out with the decryption, but found herself unable to fully refocus on it. The short chat with Umbreon had reminded her of just how tired she was, and how little she had eaten in her last meal. She tried for five minutes, but couldn't make any progress as she just couldn't find herself able to both get her eyes to focus on it and her mind to think about it. After her stomach grumbled, she placed her paw on it and knew she couldn't just keep fruitlessly pushing on. Even if the hunger wasn't bad then, she knew it would only grow overtime.

She pushed all the papers into a pile, putting the less suspicious ones on top and facing them downwards. Tamin then walked out of the library and began making her way back up.

As she walked through the basement again, she noticed something, or rather, she noticed the lack of something. The basement was void of any other Pokemon in it, it was completely barren and silent. Even the day she got trapped downstairs had more activity as that had Locke and Hunter down there with her. This was because almost everyone in the guild was asleep, with those awake already on the main floor to get ready for their lunch.

Tamin heard nothing with her fine tuned ears while she was downstairs. But as she got to the stairs and began walking up then, she got to hear friendly banter between voices she rarely got to hear.

Once she climbed fully upstairs, she saw the light in the guild was dimmed, yet still on. The window outside revealed the skies to be a cloudless black boasting a glorious array of stars.

Tamin wandered down into the hall, then the foyer and went to the doorway that led to the mess hall.

When she looked into the mess hall, she saw various pokemon around the table that she didn't often see. The only ones she truly recognized was Umbreon, Buizel, and Crystal. All around the table and getting it set as well as bringing food over to it.

Since she was stepping into the doorway into the mess hall to look in, she was also exposing herself to be seen by the pokemon in it, with Umbreon being the first to see her.

"Hi Tamin, come to join us?" Umbreon asked as she saw Tamin, which caused others to raise their heads and look towards her.

"Yeah, I just need a bite to eat," Tamin said, walking forward to the table. "I think I'll probably be doing an all-nighter."

"That's fine then. Please, have as much as you'd like."

"Thanks," Tamin said, saving precious words for later.

She took the same seat she usually sat at with meals, and grabbed some food as the rest ate. During the meal, she got a chance to observe this set of guild members without any of the diurnal ones she usually spent time with present. The most notable thing she observed was just how quiet compared to daytime meals, no one chewing with their mouth open, no loud banter, they were all calm and ate with etiquette.

It didn't take long into the meal for Tamin to notice that Crystal was intentionally avoiding making eye contact with her. The weavile wasn't making it subtle, but Tamin didn't make any action regarding that. She didn't want to interact with her either.

She thought the buizel being there was the strangest thing. As she thought about it more, she realized that she never did see her during lunch or at most times of day, but the bright orange fur did not match with the darker colors the rest of them had. Her behavior was different from the others as well, at the start of the meal she put her paws together, closed her eyes, and lowered her ear below her paws as she silently prayed before eating. Most of her attention, both with sight and hearing, was on that water type. Her curiosity was taken captive.

Once everyone was done eating, Tamin didn't immediately go back to the basement. Instead, she decided to be more proactive than she was on most days and walk up to the buizel.

"So, I didn't know buizel were nocturnal?" Tamin asked Buizel, it being the first question she could think of that she mainly said just to have the initiative.

"There are plenty of buizel that stay up with the sun, but there are more (which includes me) that like the night. Just kinda depends on which way you were raised" she answered, "Although I'm definitely the one here that could most easily pull off an all-dayer if I was needed in the day."

"Huh. I suppose that would be a term for you."

"Indeed. I'd say I'm happy with my life though. It's calmer at night, and it's nicer on the eyes."

"I can see why you would like that," Tamin said. "I've never really been a fan of the hyper people in this guild, like Dewott."

"Don't gossip about others," Buizel hissed, suddenly more commanding.

"Oh, I'm sorry..." Tamin said, taken aback.

"It's fine. Just watch your tongue in the future. Arceus does warn to do as much."

"Um, okay," Tamin said. The minccino took a step back. She wanted out from the conversation as she felt it was going to go in a strange direction.

She managed to back away, with Buizel not pursuing her further. As she turned around, she saw that Umbreon wasn't far ahead of her. The two made eye contact.

"So why exactly are you staying up so long?" Umbreon asked.

"Just some personal stuff I have been working on," Tamin said as she tried to think of a way to change this conversation, "So aren't you the leader of the guild right now?"

"Yeah. My younger brother is the leader during the day and I lead in the night. He's also classified as the leader when we're both awake." Umbreon explained, "I don't have as many people to keep track of, but he also has Niot and Sylveon to help him out. So it sort of balances out."

"I see," Tamin said, "To be honest, I can sometimes hear you guys skittering around in the guildhouse while trying to get to sleep in my room."

"I think we do a better job than the durnals do about that," Umbreon replied.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Tamin said. Every time she was ever loud in the guild not only came back to her recollection, but and slapped her.

"Don't be, you've definitely shown yourself to be a quiet type," Umbreon reassured, forcing a smile.

"Ah, that's good to know. Say, what's your name? I remember Espeon saying it was Herold, but I don't believe I've gotten your name."

"I'm Eryth," Umbreon told her. "And my brother's name is actually pronounced 'Herald'."

"Ah, I see then."

The two turned down one of the hallways as they stayed together, Umbreon leading while Tamin followed. They both passed by the rooms of the other guild members as they walked, making sure to be light on their feet and quiet in tone so as to avoid disturbing them.

"To be honest, I don't see too much that I could give you a tour on how it's like at night. This place is largely the same as it is during the day. Just a little bit darker and with a little bit less people," Umbreon said.

"Alright. So here's a question: is the office right next to the questboard room specifically Espeon's office, or is it the guildmaster's office and do you use it during the nighttime?"

"It's my office as well. And I use it when it's my turn to run the guild, but I typically stay out of it while I can. I don't want to wake my brother up while stepping in the room above him." Umbreon explained.

"Ah, I know, speaking of your brother, did you know he's kinda got a thing for Sebastien going?"

"Yeah, I do." Umbreon answered, "I really don't think there's anything you could tell me about them that I don't already know. They're quite intimate, and I'm not going to intervene or stop them. It's not my life."

"Ah, that's what I like to hear."

"Thanks," Umbreon responded with a smile before she went back to being serious, "Oh, going back to the office: didn't you get locked up in that office by Sylveon a little while back."

"Uhh, yeah actually." Tamin said, getting a bit embarrassed and her cheeks turning a slight shade of red, "There's a longer story about it though. I was trapped downstairs and Hunter was the one that suggested we-"

"Relax, I've heard the full story." Umbreon said, "I know that it was Hunter that pulled you and Locke into it. I put most of my blame on him."

"Ah, okay." Tamin said, "Thanks for being understanding."

"Right." Umbreon said, "You know, I've heard a lot about Hunter. I've seen him in the hours when we are both awake, and the times where he gets kept in one room for a while as a punishment.

He's a real rascal, that zorua. Always getting himself into trouble. Pulling some not-so-light hearted pranks on others and making others get into hot water. I'm sure he keeps things interesting for my brother in the daylight hours."

"Yeah, I guess." Tamin said, "But sometimes he can be a little too much work for what he's worth."

"I suppose. The only real equivalent I have to him is Murkrow, who is less of a prankster and just a kleptomaniac. Not nearly as interesting."

"...You know, not that you mention it, I think I remember seeing some of the decorations in my room go missing on a few occasions."

"Yep," Umbreon sighed, "that was him…"

Umbreon and Tamin continued to talk for a little while longer, getting to have a heart to heart. Like what had happened when she worked at the letter, Tamin lost track of time once more. She had a second wind where she no longer felt tired, but she wasted plenty of the time she had that energy on just talking.

Umbreon was able to catch one last glimpse of Tamin before she headed downstairs without announcement. Umbreon was able to see Tamin's eyes half-closed and arms drooping down. The effects of not having sleep were taking its toll on the minccino.

By the time she had gotten back down, she was more tired than how she was before she went up to eat. While she did manage to regain focus and continue working, her mental capabilities and vision just became more and more blurry as time went on.

Back to the seemingly endless task of trying to decipher the letter, to make her best guesses on what certain symbols meant; only to have to backtrack on those guesses after backtrack after backtrack. Whenever she thought she was on the train of progress, she would have to erase it all soon enough.

Tamin's state of mind went away at an exponential rate as getting work done became harder and harder. Just seeing what the symbols were started getting hard as her vision blurred and even keeping her eyes open had its own difficulties.

While Tamin was downstairs in the library, Umbreon casually kept track of the time while she did her own work. Not much work was available to be done in the office due to the low number of missions being carried out, but she did what she could while her eyes constantly glanced back at the clock to see the time.

Once an hour had passed and it was a solid three in the morning, Umbreon jumped down from the office seat.

Umbreon traveled outside of the room and then took the fastest path to get downstairs. While she was normally quiet, she made sure she was especially quiet now.

Once there, Umbreon opened the door up to look inside. When she did, on the far side of the room she could see a calm minccino sitting down at the table chair. She wasn't holding a pencil or looking at a piece of paper, her head was laying on the table and her eyes were closed. Umbreon also listened to hear the quiet breathing while she looked at Tamin using the papers as a makeshift pillow.

Watching Tamin sleeping after she passed out from lack of sleep was something Umbreon found cute. She didn't fault Tamin, for she knew what her diurnal sleep schedule meant for her and the difficulties in breaking that.

"Goodnight, sweet thing," Umbreon whispered to Tamin, avoiding waking her.

Umbreon stepped close to Tamin and turned her head to the side. She then opened her mouth and put her teeth around Tamin's body to carefully grip her.

Once Umbreon had Tamin picked up and being carried in her mouth, she began walking out of the library,leaving her work behind on the table. She went through the basement rooms into the lounge, up the staircase that wasn't destroyed by a bottle rocket.

She stepped over to Tamin's chamber door and opened it up to go inside. Although she had never seen the interior to Tamin's room before, she was able to spot the hammock hanging up in the room and deduced it to be what Tamin usually slept in.

Umbreon walked to the end of the room and stood up on her back legs while pressing one of her front paws against the wall for support. Now that she had the right height, she gently opened her mouth to set the sleeping Tamin down into her hammock, nothing that had happened quite being able to wake her up.

"Sweet dream, little minccino," Umbreon whispered again, still too quiet to wake her up.

Umbreon lowered herself back onto all-fours again before she walked out of Tamin's room, leaving her behind to get the sleep she desperately needed.

Tamin spent several hours resting in her hammock. Sleeping soundly during that time, far from the point where she would naturally wake up.

It wasn't until hours later where another sound would wake her up.

The sound of knocking repeatedly banged on the door to Tamin's room.

"Tamin wake up! It's time for breakfast!" Niot shouted through the door.

She was finally woken by the sound being produced, leaving Tamin in confusion on where she once was.

From her perspective, she was just at work on trying to decode the letter a second ago, but now she was suddenly in her hammock and inside of her bedroom. She at first wondered if the entire situation with the letter was a dream, or if she was currently dreaming, but then Tamin got embarrassed of herself as she realized she must have passed out and fallen asleep in the library. Then, she got even more embarrassed when she realized that someone must have carried her to her room to put her to bed.

After spending a few seconds to get herself reoriented with reality, Tamin jumped down from the hammock she had apparently slept in and walked over to the door in her room.

Tamin was in the state where her body and mind were still in the process of waking up, so she actually still groggy with slowed movements and tired eyes despite just getting several hours of sleep.

Once she opened the unlocked door to her room and walked out of her room, she didn't stop to have any talk with Niot. Instead, she just chose to make a sleepy walk straight to the mess hall.

She wasn't too terribly hungry for breakfast due to having a meal in the middle of the night. She spent breakfast as a time to wake herself up and remind herself of what needed to be done.

"I still have to get that letter figured out," Tamin said to herself. "Wait, where is it right now?

The last time I saw the letter was in the library, is it still there? Did anyone take it?"

Tamin only got a few bites of food from breakfast before she jumped off of her seat to start walking out of the room. She went to get back to the staircase and get to the library again.

Locke was in the room and eating breakfast, and he noticed Tamin leave. Part because he was paying a lot of attention to Tamin as she was his friend, and part because she was doing so at an odd time. So Locke decides to finish the current bit of food he was on and follow her.

Tamin once again navigated her way through the floors and into the library. There she was thankful to find the letter and her decrypting notes still on the table there, along with some of her loose fur from sleeping on the papers. Although the possibility of someone seeing them wasn't ruled out.

She began taking the letter and notes to get then all picked up, planning to transport them all back to her room where she felt safer.

As Tamin began heading out of the room with all of her papers in hand, Locke came into her path and they met up in the basement.

Tamin was surprised to see Locke in this location. There must have been something he had to say to her.

"Are you still working on that weird letter?" Locke asked.

"Yeah," Tamin responded, "I think I've gotten a little bit of it done, but I still have no idea what it says."

Locke gave a sigh before he continued to talk.

"Listen, I don't want you to be getting obsessive with that. I don't want you to waste so much of your time into that little of a thing that you start losing sleep because of it." Locke said to Tamin.

"But I really want to know what this says," she complained

"You no actual idea with on what this translates to being and saying or any rest" Locke pointed out, his grammar still leaving something to be desired like always, "You are just going to waste literally unhealthy amounts of time on that."

Tamin spent a few seconds thinking about what Locke had said, considering the realism of the situation as well as her curiosity.

"Maybe you're right…" Tamin admitted. "Maybe it would be best for me to stop."

"I don't want you to waste your life devoted to this."

"If you think it is best for me, I can stop..."

"Right," Locke said as he began to turn around and walk away, expecting Tamin to follow, "Face it. Realistically, you would need someone who is completely obsessively investigative to figure this out. With this being the sort of thing that they plan to be doing in their life."

"I understand," Tamin said to close off the conversation.

**End of chapter 22.**


	23. The Good Ol' Days

The day was at the peak of Summer, way back then. Even in the depths of a mystery dungeon the sun's scorching rays could be felt, such places were no sanctuary from a heat wave.

Locke brushed off the heat as he finished off another two of the dungeon's residents. Aside from his fur giving off the odor of sweat, he was unaffected by it. At that time, he was glad that the bags on his sides were the only clothing he had, as anything more would surely intensify the heat. The shinx had also noticed that there were far less pokemon in the dungeon than there had usually been, beyond what could just be passed off as them all laying down from the heat wave. He was thankful for that as well, but it was still strange.

He walked around the two pokemon he defeated to reach a berry bush, and proceeded to pluck it clean. Locke knew those berries lasted for a while and were a good snack. They were full of juice and would be perfect for the dry throat the summer had inflicted onto him. After rounding them up and harvesting what he could store, Locke turned and walked off to the dungeon's entrance where he had come in from.

The shinx might have been alone, but he didn't care. Being solo was what he was used to, and he was more than capable of handling himself in those dungeons. It's not like he had known much else during that time.

But when traversing his way out, he saw something new that stood out. In one of the thinner passages there was a sneasel collapsed onto the ground. It was a strange enough sight as the sneasel was certainly not native to the meadow-like mystery, but the pokemon had a backpack, and it wasn't any place one would choose to sleep in. Locke silently checked around him to ensure this wasn't any trap or ambush, and then approached the collapsed sneasel.

Upon closer inspection, the sneasel wasn't unconscious. Her head was low and she was barely panting, too dehydrated to even sweat. At that state, she couldn't have even been any threat to him, and Locke could tell she was like him and not the mad dungeon pokemon simply from all the small clues and giveaways that his subconscious picked up on so his instincts could flare up.

"Hello?" Locke asked the sneasel. It wasn't much, but he felt he had to say something.

"H-help me," the sneasel responded.

The shinx was caught off guard by this. He hadn't seen a pokemon ask for his assistance like that before. Yet at the same time, empathy compelled him to take action.

"H-how help?" he asked.

"P-please," the sneasel responded, incapable of giving a proper response.

Locke did not hesitate at that point in trying to find what was wrong. He set one of his paws on her, and felt her fur was exceptionally hot. She had already passed into heat stroke and was so far in she could barely even sweat anymore. It didn't have the low body temperature that typically accompanied ice types, her fur felt like a blanket that had been left by a radiator.

Understanding the problem, Locke worked to lift her up and get his body under her. He got the sneasel on his back, and began walking off to where he entered the area from. As he walked, he felt the sneasel's warm claws cling to his fur, which told him he was doing the right thing.

Mercifully, he encountered no wild pokemon on the way back, nor traps or natural hazards to hinder him. It was a relief beyond measure as Locke wasn't sure he could even fight without hurting- and possibly killing- the sneasel he carried. It was more than just the bodyweight and grip that was being put onto him, Locke could feel her putting her hope into him as well. For the first time in his life, Locke had something more than just his own life and meager inventory, he was entrusted to protect her life as well.

It took a few minutes for the shinx to retrace his steps. He saw the exit back into the open land and sky, of which he swiftly exited. The heat intensified even further when they were directly exposed to the sun's rays. Immediately after getting out, Locke spotted a pond right outside the natural passageway that he had remembered. That was the next objective of his, and he carefully walked down the hill to the sparkling blue water. Arriving, he set the sneasel down so that she was waist-deep in it. Locke then removed his bags and entered the water with her.

The water was still cool, and she felt herself being rejuvenated immediately. The first thing she did when she regained control of her muscles was to scoop some of the water in her claws and drink it. Her breathing corrected, and her body more as she shifted herself to be submerged up to her shoulders. Locke observed her as she did this, stepping his paws into the pond as well.

"Thank you," the sneasel said as she had her head upwards and had her eyes closed, feeling the water cascade down down her fur after quickly dipping into the water fully. "Thank you so much."

"No problem, then," Locke said. Still not sure how to deal with the social conversation.

"I'll admit, I'm pretty sure you saved my life back there," she continued to talk. "I couldn't even move back there."

"Um, right. I seed that," Locke said with erroneous grammar. "Do you have a name?"

"My name is 'Crystal'," the sneasel told him. "Do you have a name I could call you by?"

"I be Locke," he said to her.

"Aye, I see," Crystal said. Slightly put off by the shinx's poor grammar but still able to understand.

Crystal relaxed in the for a few minutes longer, occasionally exchanging words with the shinx, to which he gave more barely legible responses. She turned her gaze to the sky to observe her surroundings. The sun was descending towards the horizon, now partially orange instead of pure yellow. The hue of the land reflected that change, seeing the colors of dusk loom between the trees.

"It's going to be night soon. I can help you camp out the night, if you'd like," Crystal said to Locke. "It can be how I make it up to you for saving me."

Locke looked at her, and then the soon to be setting sun. "Sure?" was the only thing he could ask. Having a companion offer to help was still a new concept for him at that time.

"Of course, it'd be the least I could do, and I know most pokemon aren't nocturnal," she explained.

"Hmm… would you gather firewood now? Like the larger branches? I always sometimes have a lot of a hard time getting that done."

"Of course, I can do collect for you."

"Let's start now then."

Locke got out of the pond and shook the water off of himself. He then got his bags back on while Crystal followed after. The shinx and the sneasel went down into the normal woods.

Fast forward a few hours later. The sun had made it's full descent below the horizon, leaving a thin crescent moon in the sky with countless stars around. Locke was in a tight forest clearing, small enough that many pokemon wouldn't call it by those words. There, they had made a flat fire that gave warmth and light. Above that was a shabby and makeshift grill made from the more forest's more fire resistant wood. In turn, above that was the still body of a rattata.

Locke was gazing at the fire, in a trance as he recalled visions of himself being surrounded by flames. Just then, he heard rustling from the surrounding bushes. The shinx quickly jumped up and turned to face them- anticipating a fight- only to see the same sneasel from before emerge. He lowered his stance to a relaxed pose with his forelegs upright, not something he would do had it been any other pokemon coming out.

"Back?" the shinx asked.

"Yeah. I managed to scavenge some extra bark for the fire. Even got some berries harvested as well."

The sneasel's claws had gotten dirty from all the woodcutting she was doing. She skinned a few trees to harvest the best bark she could identify at that time, leaving the ends brown.

She got on the side of the fire opposite to Locke, staying an extra half meter away from it then he was. She tossed in the bark like how one throws a frisbee to get it below the makeshift grill, then got into a relaxed position.

"So, how are you?" Crystal asked.

"Fair," Locke said, looking at her instead of the flames.

"How long have you been doing mystery dungeons?" she asked. "I noticed you seem to have some skills."

"Dunno."

"Any companions you have?"

"Hmm?"

"Like, friends, family, fellow rogues?"

"Rogues?"

"Like… forget it," Crystal said.

"Where do you from?" Locke took his turn to ask a question.

"Oh. From the south. A fair way away, actually. Made the long trek this far up."

"Why?"

"My…" Crystal's attitude suddenly dropped. Locke remembered being able to read her body language. "My parents died a few months ago. I'm an orphan living on my own now. I knew it would be cooler up in the north, so I started migrating up here for the summer.

I wish I could have made it up farther, but I got caught in a heat wave anyways. Thanks again, by the way."

"Oh," Locke said flatly. He couldn't relate at all to what she was saying, he didn't know what it was like to have parents and by extension how to lose them. The only thing he could make out is the behavior of this pokemon whom he had saved. She wasn't at all like the feral dungeon pokemon or the fully civilized ones he saw when passing through towns to trade. She was like him. Different gender, body, type, and past, but similar in so many other ways.

"Hey, what's your last name? Mine is Diana, but I don't think mine matters anymore. I never asked for yours.

"I'm don't know," Locke replied.

"You don't? Or do you just not remember?"

"I don't remember any parents. I just an Locke," he clarified.

"Well, okay then. Hmm…"

"Yes, no to parents."

Crystal turned her head away from this shinx and muttered some phrase under her breath that Locke couldn't quite catch. He could vaguely make out the tone, though. He remembered it possessing a tone of remorse. Remembered, that is.

Right afterwards she returned her head to the position it was previously, reconnecting eye contact with Locke.

"I've heard it said before that if you could choose your family, it'd look a lot different. Neither of us have one of those, but I think that applies to companions as well right now. We're together for now, so let's just try and make this work.

Have any goals?"

"Live," Locke replied.

"I get that, but anything more? Like once you get safe?" Crystal asked. "Life goals, y'know?"

"Dunno."

"I mean… fine. That's all I need to know."

"And you?"

Crystal's eyes widened just a little bit when Locke said that. Nothing was wrong with the question itself, but that was what made her curious. It proved the shinx wasn't just bubbling around cluelessly and with no intelligence on what she was saying, he did understand the question and how it was applicable to her as well.

After that moment of surprise, she leaned her body back to lay down on the ground. She gazed upwards to the countless stars above in clear view, looking to them like they were the only things that had been with her across her whole life.

"I just want to have some control over my life," she admitted. "I couldn't stop my parents from getting infected, I couldn't stop them dying from disease, I couldn't stop from running out of supplies, I couldn't stop Summer from coming, and I couldn't stop from overheating. Life has just been out to get me, it feels. Giving me crap whenever it could and forcing me around. I just want to have some control, do what I want to do, have some… power- I guess- to me and myself."

"...I see," Locke replied, looking at the sneasel as she stargazed.

The two fell silent for a few seconds, too unused to conversations at the time to know how to continue the talk. Locke just went back to gazing at the flames, but kept his ears perched to stay vigilant for any attackers. Crystal wasn't very different, though she was looking slightly above at the roasting ratatta.

"It's been a little bit, could you turn that rattata over so it gets nice and smoothly cooked?" Crystal asked. "Sorry, I just don't want to get close to anything hot again right now."

"It's alright," the shinx said.

He walked over to the flame, and used his paw to flip the corpse over. He hardly reacted to getting close to the fire. When he walked away, he flicked his tail to be beside his body so it didn't touch the flames. He then returned to the exact spot he was at.

"Say, you built that campfire up pretty well," Crystal complimented.

"Thanks."

"Do you know some fire type move, or did you do something else?"

"Just sparks," Locke replied.

"Do you know any other electric moves?"

"Just sparks."

"I'm pretty sure you can learn thunderbolt. That move's a lot- that move's significantly better than just sparks. If you get a TM book from a town you could learn it from that."

"I can't," Locke said.

"Oh, that's not a move shinx can learn?"

"I don't know how to read," Locke explained.

"Huh. I guess I should have expected that, given how you talk."

"Hey, can you isn't?"

"What?"

"What?"

The two stared at each other confused for a moment, and then shook it off.

"Well… I can try to teach you if you want," Crystal said to Locke.

"You can?" he asked.

"Yes. We're pretty smart like that, so I was able to pick up reading pretty young. I could try showing you what I know when it's dawn."

"Like… payback for me saving you?"

"Sure."

"Alright… yeah, that sounds nice…" Locke had said, a smile formed on his face for a moment.

"Great. Glad we've got a plan now for the day ahead," Crystal said, exhaling a sigh of relief.

"I wonder how well I won't not be working as two in a dungeon," Locke spoke as he ambitiously looked up towards the stars.

"Umm.. Yes," Crystal said in absence of a proper response, completely perplexed by what the shinx meant.

They continued small chatter for a few more minutes. Nothing else came to interact with them, it was just the two of them in the small radius of campfire light. When the ratata finished cooking, they split it up to eat it together. As they ate, the fire gradually dimmed away.

After consuming his share, Locke went to a bush to go to sleep in while staying hidden. Crystal had the choice of moving on, continuing her journey to the north, but she decided to stay- to keep watch of her new companion. For the first time, Locke had some assurance when he slept. He could get to sleep far quicker, without the worry of being attacked in his sleep.

Locke then got woken up by feeling a pressure on his neck. This caused him to spring up and get ready to defend himself. Things calmed down, however, as he realized it was just Crystal there that was waking him up.

The sun was only halfway above the horizon. As a result, the lands were still very shaded and dark, only some rays of sunlight piercing through the trees to meet Locke.

"Morning, Locke," the sneasel said to him.

"Arg… Morning- uh- Crystal," Locke said, forcing himself awake.

"I did some scouting around when you were asleep. There's another mystery dungeon not far from here. A cavern, this time. No fruit or juicy berries, but there ought to be some old treasures to collect. Go in, get the items, pawn them in the nearest town, you get the deal.

I want to head off and get it done before it's the heat of the day. And I need you to help me out with that."

"Mmm… got it," Locke said.

"Your bags seem to have a good amount of space in them, and you look reasonably strong with your build. So I figured you'd be a perfect match for this sort of heist."

"Right. I can help you out with that," Locke affirmed.

"Wonderful. I'll lead the way, the entrance is just a klick away," Crystal said.

"Mhm. Now I just wonder how good I won't not be if helping you,"

"What?- Well, nevermind. L-let's just get there. Get there when it's still cool."

The two walked forward through the wilds, walking around a tree and scaling up a hill. Aside from the elements, the lands weren't that dangerous outside of the mystery dungeons, so the two could feel safe as they traversed through the forest together. When they spotted a berry bush or low fruit tree that was ready to be harvested, they took a momentary pause to focus on harvesting the produce from that instead. It filled the parts of their belly that the meat from last night left. Even though Crystal was mostly awake in the night and had night vision, it was still much easier to search out food under daylight.

Even with the stops to satisfy other survival purposes, it wasn't long before Crystal guided them to the cavern she found. Before them stood a dirt tunnel at the side of a hill with the occasional root being visible from the roof. The smell of mud was present, the putrid aroma blocked out the would be refreshing smell of grass and pollen, but still made it smell like they were in a forest instead of an abrasive cavern.

"Here we go. Shouldn't be too deep or dangerous," Crystal said as the two stood side-by-side in front of the entrance.

"It's not. I believe I've been there here before," Locke said. "It'll all be alright."

"Good to know. I figured it would just be a hole that those pokemon who love shiny things would hoard in. Didn't really look like a sprawling nest," Crystal stated.

"Have you ever like been far enough to hard dungeon try do?" Locke said, flawlessly nonchalantly without so much as a stutter.

"I have absolutely no idea what you just said,"

"Forget that."

Crystal did as commanded and tried her best to ignore that comment.

The sneasel then kneeled down and began to take her backpack off to put it in front of her and scrounge through it.

"Give me a second, I'm pretty sure I have some dry cloth to fashion a torch out of…" Crystal said while looking through it.

"Not need," Locke replied.

The shinx sat down and began moving his body in strange ways. Stretching his and slowly rotating his neck until it was as pulled as far as he could. After a few seconds, like a glowstick being cracked, his body began glowing. The sneasel had turned her head to see the shinx doing that.

"Oh… well sweet, that's useful," Crystal said, "Well, let's head in."

The shinx and the sneasel walked into the dungeon. Their feet almost immediately made contact with the puddles of mud beneath them and got dirty, but neither of them reacted to that. Locke's biological light was purely yellow in hue, not orange like a firelight or with a blue tinge like daylight or moonlight. As a result, the tunnel looked more like it was illuminated by a building's fluorescent light.

Eyes locked to search for objects, hears readied to listen for threats. Side-by-side they marched down the cavern, Locke worked with someone instead of alone for the first time.

Some time into the dungeon, and Locke noticed the glimmer of shining his light back at him. After a quick double check to ensure there were no traps or enemies, he went up to investigate. Pulling it out of mud with his two front paws and shaking the mud off of it, he found it to be a green hairpin. It looked jade, but was exceptionally light.

"I found something!" Locke enthusiastically declared as he turned to the sneasel.

"Oh? Let me see," Crystal replied.

She walked up to Locke and took the hairpin he was holding up towards her. Crystal inspected it, and tapped it a few times.

"Oh, it's just plastic. Nothing valuable at all," she said.

"Wait!" Locke said right before she could toss it away.

"What is it?"

"Do you think you could… wear it?" Locke asked. "I think matches your eyes pretty well. So it could be something worth keeping of or that reason."

"Ah, I see where you're coming from," Crystal said, still holding it.

The sneasel grabbed a tuft of fur on her head and pulled it together. She then stuck the hairpin into it, and it clipped it on. The pin was left on the top right of her head, pointing diagonally.

"I think you're right, it's good," she said.

"Mhm."

"Right. Let's keep looking for valuable things, though," Crystal said as she turned to continue going deeper into the tunnel.

Suddenly, Locke's view of reality suddenly started changing. The image of the sneasel started getting blurry and her sounds muffled, as other stimuli began taking hold again. His mind's eye was getting unclear, his true senses being forcefully pulled back.

"Hey, Locke? Are you okay there?" Crystal the weavile said whilst tapping on the shinx. "Locke?"

The shinx's eyes refocused and he shook his head around, waking himself up to what was happening. He stood in front of a drawer in Crystal's room, he'd been doing so for several minutes.

"Y-yeah," Locke stuttered out.

"You looked like you were completely spacing out right there. Just standing there and looking down," Crystal said. "What was going on with you?"

"Oh, I was just reminiscing a bit," the shinx explained.

"About what? You were out for like five minutes."

"This."

Locke stepped aside so he was no longer between the drawer and Crystal. In the pulled out drawer, atop a pile of various small items, laid a green hairpin. The weavile looked down at it, and Locke looked up at her.

"Wasn't that the hairpin I found and gave you when we first met?" Locke asked.

"Hmm… oh now that you mention it, yeah. It is," Crystal said. "I'd totally forgotten about that. Surprised you found that and remembered."

"Forgotten? But, it's when we first met each other," Locke asked.

"Eh, it's just a piece of plastic. Nothing valuable," the weavile said. "Want it back?"

"I- umm- no. I gave it to you, you should be keeping it," Locke said, too confused to articulate his emotions.

"Well yeah, that's what I have been doing," Crystal said, her face mirroring Locke's confusion, not understanding what was the deal over the plastic hairpin. "It's been in there for years now."

"I- well- I'd just like if you kept it somewhere special-" Locke tried to explain through his confusion. "It's- it's special to me."

"It's special to you and you don't want to have it?"

"I-..."

"...Well anyways, I'm planning on talking to some others I know, so I'd like it if you left my room while I did that," Crystal said.

"Okay, but I was just-"

"Now."

"Okay, okay," Locke hurriedly said.

The shinx stepped out of the door, and began his way to his own room. The weavile stepped out shortly after, and shut the room door behind her. The two split to go different paths.

From the second floor to the main floor, from the main floor to the basement and its lounge, Crystal made her way downwards. The lounge was mostly empty at the time, most had been going to their own rooms early out of lack of things to do during the winter. As a result, it didn't take much time for the weavile to scan over the area and find who she sought out: a fraxure.

Crystal approached the dragon type pokemon, and the pokemon saw her back. The weavile closed her eyes, tilted her head to the side and raised her claw to wave at her, greeting her with a smile as the distance was closed.

"Heya Frax," Crystal said.

"Hey Crystal," the fraxure replied.

"I just wanted to check up on you before you went to bed, that's all," Crystal said.

"Glad you did. Here, let's walk-n-talk a bit," Fraxure said as she rose from her seat.

"Sounds perfect," Crystal the weavile replied while she began following Fraxure down one of the pathways in the basement.

"Have things been going good for you?" Fraxure asked.

"Of course, I'm loving the cold nights," Crystal replied. "How about you? I think I remember you talking about wanting to get a new hobby to get through winter."

"I've been playing some tabletop games recently. It's been wonderful. Do you think you might want to join me for a game?"

"That sounds wonderful. Would it be okay if I invite Locke for that as well?" Crystal asked.

"Oh right, that reminds me. How has your relationship with him been going?"

"Splendorous!" Crystal said enthusiastically.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah," Crystal confirmed again." I will admit, I've heard a lot of scary stories with just how abusive boys can be towards their girlfriends, wives, and even kids. But I made sure to get control of the relationship early on so I could prevent that. And that let me tell you, that just worked!"

"That's great to hear. And yeah, men really are abusive pricks when they're allowed to be," Fraxure gave confirmation. "To hell with 'boys will be boys'."

"To hell with that indeed, I'm not going to be a lightning rod. Especially when he's as violent as he is."

The two laughed for a very short period, and then continued making small talk with each other whilst walking deeper into the basement.

Meanwhile, one floor above, Tamin was within the bounds of her room. She just lied down in her hammock with a book in her paws, scanning over the rows of words. Black text being the only thing to relieve her eyes from the endless white pages.

As she read the stories of pokemon far stronger and more free than her, she overheard a very faint from her abode's door using her large ears and keen senses. She lowered the book and leaned up on her hammock to look towards the entrance, and saw a piece of paper that was slid under the door.

The minccino hopped down from her hammock, and set her book down on the floor, keeping it at the same page with the papers facing the floor. Tamin then walked over to the piece of paper by the door.

The top side of it was blank, so Tamin grabbed it and flipped it over to check the bottom. That side did contain words, reading:

"Hello my friend, Tamin. This is Yuki.

While I have decided to delay this for multiple reasons for sometime, I've reached the end of how long I am willing to push this back. I request you come to my room, effective immediately, where I will get to doing to you what I have spent months planning. I know you were alone in your room when I gave this message, and I can promise consequences will come if you choose to ignore this for more than two hours. Don't worry, you will live of course, but that does not automatically mean you will get to tell the tale. All that will happen is you will come out with more humility.

I am fully aware of your ability to report me for what I've done if you see fit, and have taken that into full consideration. But I believe you will find it wiser to obey what I say. Because regardless of what happens to me, I will be able to tell the guildmasters of your lies and how you're still in the legal custody of your parents. And if what happens to me is irrelevant, then it is purely a choice between me or your parents.

Lastly- and this is of high importance- when you come to my room you are to bring this exact note and no other eyes are to see it. This is important, as I must burn this message after you read through it. Under no circumstance can I leave you with this extra evidence to share to others.

I'm sure you will make the right decision, Tamin. I expect to see you soon."

Tamin lowered the letter and looked up at nothing. She let out a deep exhale, and closed her eyes as she thought over her decisions.

_"Well, I probably was lucky to stall it out for this long anyways,"_ Tamin thought to herself. "Really wish something else would have come up to give me an opportunity out of this, like what Hunter did, but looks like I was testing my luck as is to get this far. Hmm…

Well, if I do see what's inside of the room I'll get some more eye witness testimonies of what she's doing and can probably get Braixen saved and Yuki punished harder with that. Much graver accusations than simply 'she blackmailed and threatened me', so there's that going for both me and him…

Ah, screw it."

Tamin spent a minute longer in her room, mentally steeling herself as much as she could. When doubt set into her mind, she was alone in needing to push that out of her head. The minccino then folded up the message three times, put the book she was reading back to the place they were, and grabbed the handle of her door to head out.

There wasn't anything noble she was walking towards fulfilling. Nothing that took bravery to conquer. No evil she was capable of slaying. Just an inevitability she needed to face in obligation.

**End of chapter 23.**


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